{"id":366817,"date":"2025-11-09T12:15:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T12:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/366817\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T12:15:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T12:15:22","slug":"salt-n-pepa-fight-for-their-masters-at-the-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/366817\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt-N-Pepa Fight for Their Masters at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHip-hop legends Salt-N-Pepa<\/a> added one more monumental honor to their mantle with their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> as the recipients of this year\u2019s Musical Influence Award. Both Cheryl \u201cSalt\u201d James and Sandra \u201cPepa\u201d Denton were on hand to accept on Saturday, Nov. 8, as was the duo\u2019s formerly estranged DJ Spinderella (Deidra Roper), who became the first female DJ inducted into the Rock Hall.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is for every woman who picked up a mic when they told her her she couldn\u2019t,\u201d said James while accepting the honor. While both Denton and Roper gave individual speeches thanking their friends, family, genre, and audience, James used her time at the podium to tell the crowd that the group is fighting<\/a> for the rights to their master recordings. \u201cAs we celebrate this moment, fans can\u2019t even stream our music. It\u2019s been taken down from all streaming platforms because the industry still doesn\u2019t want to play fair. Salt-N-Pepa have never been afraid of a fight. This is the Influence Award. We have to keep using our influence until the industry honors creativity the way the audience does \u2014 with love, respect and fairness \u2014 and that includes streaming platforms too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPresenting Salt-N-Pepa with their Musical Influence Award was Missy Elliott<\/a> (who became the first female rapper to be nominated and inducted into the Rock Hall<\/a> in 2023). \u201cThe reason that you even know Missy Elliott\u2019s name is because of Salt, Pepa, and Spinderella,\u201d Elliott said in her impassioned speech, embodying an electric preacher. \u201cWhen you see your favorite rapper, understand that if they\u2019re on top, there\u2019s a foundation that they\u2019re standing on. These three women are the bricklayers to the foundation that holds hip-hop together. They gave us their shoulders to stand on.\u201d Elliott wore a bejeweled letterman inspired by the trio\u2019s iconic look.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSalt-N-Pepa with producer Hurby \u201cLuv Bug\u201d Azor<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmy Sussman\/WireImage<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore the speeches, Salt-N-Pepa took the stage to perform a medley of their hits, kicking it off with the iconic lines of \u201cMy Mic Sounds Nice\u201d into \u201cShoop.\u201d Then they performed their 1991 smash \u201cLet\u2019s Talk About Sex\u201d in front of massive digital banners toting the phrase as well as a line of male dancers humping the floor, capturing the boldness of the hit.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tDJ Spinderella got a moment of solo-shine to scratch before En Vogue strutted on stage to perform their 1993 collaboration, \u201cWhatta Man.\u201d<\/a> <\/strong>Pepa modernized her verse by swapping in \u201cBarack\u201d for \u201cArnold\u201d (i.e. Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the line \u201cA body like Arnold with a Denzel [Washington] face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the grand finale, their original producer Hurby \u201cLuv Bug\u201d Azor joined the trio in commanding the crowd to dance to \u201cPush It\u201d (to which Cyndi Lauper, in the audience, gladly obliged).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are rock and roll,\u201d Salt told reporters prior to their induction. \u201cIt\u2019s all one thing. It\u2019s more about what you accomplished and not so much about the genre, which i love. We got to the point where this is what we worked for and deserve. Rock and roll, hip-hop, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThank you for keeping us so relevant and alive for 40 years,\u201d Pepa added. \u201cThis is a big moment that solidified and defined all the hard work we\u2019ve pushed through from the Eighties until now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSalt-N-Pepa were one most of the most influential<\/a> and successful hip-hop acts<\/a> of the late-Eighties and early-Nineties. They became the first female rap act to earn gold and platinum status when their debut, Hot, Cool, & Vicious sold over a million copies, fueled by the success of \u201cPush It.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThey scored additional hits with \u201cExpression\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Talk About Sex\u201d before finally cracking the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993 with back-to-back singles, \u201cShoop\u201d and \u201cWhatta Man\u201d (which peaked at Numbers Four and Three, respectively). Both songs appeared on Salt-N-Pepa\u2019s multi-platinum album, Very Necessary, which also featured their Grammy-winning track, \u201cNone of Your Business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSalt-N-Pepa with producer Hurby \u201cLuv Bug\u201d Azor during the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKevin Kane\/Getty Images for RRHOF<\/p>\n

\n\tSalt-N-Pepa have received plenty of accolades and honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys in 2021 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2022. In a recent interview with Billboard<\/a>, James said the Rock Hall was basically \u201cthe last big one\u201d for the group, adding they were \u201cvery, very excited.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShe continued: \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like what you want in your career; you want longevity, you want recognition, and the fact that everybody\u2019s representing Salt-N-Pepa\u2019s contribution to music is perfection to me at this point in my life. A lot of people are saying \u2018long overdue.\u2019 I say it\u2019s right on time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hip-hop legends Salt-N-Pepa added one more monumental honor to their mantle with their induction into the Rock &…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":366818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,3718,149561,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-366817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame","11":"tag-salt-n-pepa","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115519694251212720","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}