Salt-N-Pepa is arguably the most successful female rap group of all time. The group began with Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton meeting while studying to be nurses. James got Denton a job at a Sears department store, where her boyfriend Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor also worked. Azor was studying music production and he asked them to help on a school project, an answer record to Doug E. Fresh’s “The Show” they named “The Showstopper” – recorded in 1985 under the name Supernature.

After the legendary Queens DJ Marley Marl played “The Showstopper” on his radio show, the group began getting booked for shows. One lyric in “The Showstopper” was ‘We the salt and pepper’, and people kept requesting ‘that salt and pepper song’, so they changed their name to Salt-N-Pepa. Deejay Deidra “Spinderella” Ropa was added soon after.

SNP’s debut album Hot, Cool, & Vicious originally spawned a minor hit in the UK with “My Mike Sounds Nice” in early 1987. But it was the re-release of a remix of “Push It”, originally a quickly-thrown together b-side for their fall ‘87 single “Tramp”, that shot the group into international stardom. The song reached the top 10 in eleven countries around the world in 1988.

The group had continued international success throughout first half of the 1990s with hits like “Expression”, “Do You Really Want Me”, “You Showed Me”, “Shoop” and “Whatta Man” featuring En Vogue. Their 1991 hit “Let’s Talk About Sex” was used to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic in the United States at the time. SNP won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1994 for “None of Your Business”.

The group released their last album Brand New in 1997, featuring a modest hit “R U Ready,” before disbanding. SNP continues to tour and make television appearances, including the VH-1 reality series The Salt-N-Pepa Show and Let’s Talk About Pep.