A Salt with a Deadly Pepa cover

A Salt with a Deadly Pepa

Released

Salt-N-Pepa entered hip-hop responding to Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick’s runaway hit (“The Showstopper” answered “The Show”) and initially carried themselves like a female Run-DMC. The girls promoted their sophomore album, A Salt with a Deadly Pepa, rocking ripped stonewashed jeans, baggy T-shirts and cable-thick gold chains with doorknocker earrings—a tomboy style that echoed their audience’s. Their rap reworking of the Isley Brothers’ “Shake Your Thing” flaunted sass with hints of sexuality, like most of this Hurby Luv Bug-produced album. With Kid ’N Play, Heavy D and Salt-N-Pepa, the culture started carving out room for more middle-class images in hip-hop.

Miles Marshall Lewis

Recommended by

Suggestions
Paid in Full cover

Paid in Full

Eric B. & Rakim
Late Registration cover

Late Registration

Kanye West
Radio cover

Radio

LL Cool J
People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm cover

People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

A Tribe Called Quest
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ cover

Get Rich or Die Tryin’

50 Cent
The Blueprint 3 cover

The Blueprint 3

Jay-Z
Watch the Throne cover

Watch the Throne

Kanye West, Jay-Z
Beyoncé cover

Beyoncé

Beyoncé
We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service cover

We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service

A Tribe Called Quest
Yeezus cover

Yeezus

Kanye West
Yo! Bum Rush the Show cover

Yo! Bum Rush the Show

Public Enemy
Donda cover

Donda

Kanye West