CMR
It’s Cafe Mocha, a radio from a woman’s perspective with Loni Love, Yo-Yo, Angelique. It’s been 35 years since Salt-N-Pepa dropped the album that included one of their biggest songs, Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby. Black’s Magic came out 35 years ago. We’re getting old. Welcome to Cafe Mocha. One half of Salt-N-Pepa. What’s up, Salt?
Hey, what’s up, guys? How y’all doing today? Good. Oh, it’s always a pleasure when we’re talking to you, Cheryl. Yes. I love when you say Cheryl. Now, what do you think made this album such a great album? Blacks Magic. It was actually a pretty crucial time, you know, because we had had kids. But, you know, that consistency is very important. So I remember there being a little bit of pressure. But for me specifically, it was really when I started, like, taking the creative reins from Herbie, me and Pep, actually. So it was my first time actually been writing, but then started producing. And the best thing about that album for me is that it was the first album
Expression was the first song that I ever wrote and produced on my own. And it was platinum. So it gave me the feeling that, you know, I could do this on my own. We were like being liberated from Herbie, who was kind of like the Svengali of the group in the very beginning. So my first song that I ever wrote and produced went platinum. That was major. And I didn’t even really think about that until recently in my life. My manager started reminding me. It’s like, girl, you produced and wrote a platinum single. I mean, you guys set the barriers for women in hip-hop. How do you think your music shaped the culture? I always say we brought fun fashion and femininity to hip-hop at a time when there was so many varieties of sounds and women and images, and I think that was what
Salt-N-Pepa ‘s niche was we were like this fun round the way girls that everybody could relate to then the fashion the haircuts and people going to the salons and saying give me that Salt-N-Pepa you know I think we had all of those things wrapped up you know um they had a lifetime movie that i was honored to be able to, uh, interview both, uh, Salt and Pepper 4 and the Lifetime movie was such a success. Looking back on your career, Salt, did you ever think it would get to the point where there was a movie being made about you? Yeah, no, definitely not. I always knew that it would be something great because I just had this feeling. You know, I was fresh out of high school my first year of college when I met our parents.
producer, Herbie, who was also my boyfriend. And I just remember the first time I got on the mic, like I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. I definitely did not belong in school because I barely graduated high school. I got out by the skin of my teeth, not because I wasn’t smart. I just I’m just not a wasn’t a school person, you know. So when I met him, I got on the microphone and I was like, yo, this is what I want to do. You know, there’s no plan B for me. It just made me feel like purposeful. It made me feel like it was what I was meant to do. So in my mind, I always knew it was going to be great. But 35, 40 years later, all of this hoopla still going on about Salt-N-Pepa, I didn’t really think that far. So yeah, I’m honored. You know what I love about you, Salt-N-Pepa, but I love the fact that
You guys have set the bar so high for artists like myself and other artists in the industry. But the transition from being an artist at such a young age, what has been your transition? Is it hard for you to break away from music and go into another area? Being a legend, is it keeping you stagnated in this industry? Or is it possible to set your eyes on something else and not want to be a part of it? or, I mean, you don’t always represent, but do you understand what I’m asking you? Is there ever a clause in your transition? Do you ever feel like, I want to move somewhere else, but I feel like, you know, because I’m a legend, I have to stay here? Yeah, I think there’s always that thought, you know, that you want to do other things. I mean, there’s so much more to us than what we do. What we do is great, but we’re artists, so we
are able to do a bunch of things and to be able to be free to do that stuff is really important to me. So my transition, you know, I left the group for like 10 years for that reason. Like I felt like I wanted to do other things. But like you said, the legacy is the legacy. And it’s really the people that pull you in. You know, they keep reminding you how important you are to them, how you changed their life, like how you got them through life. or you got them out of an abusive relationship. So the more I hear that, the more I just embrace it and just like, you know, this was meant to be. Like I always say in the Bible, it’s salt and light, salt of the earth. I’m like, God named me, and this is where I’m supposed to be. I’d love to walk into a vegan or a meatless restaurant
restaurant that says salt on it. Yeah, right. I’m watching this transition and i love it being that I’m going to be on the other side cooking oxtails.
Cafe Mocha on the line. Salt from Salt-N-Pepa. The 35th anniversary of the Black’s Magic album is happening right now and uh salt you all were the first female rap group to win a grammy and go platinum um can we Go back and talk about that pressure to keep performing at that level. I’m not sure if I really am. I know there was pressure, but I’m not sure if I was completely aware of the pressure because I was really, really busy just doing what I love, creating. I love the stage, but I’m also a behind-the-scenes person. So I’m editing videos. I’m putting concepts together.
together. I’m making music in the studio and just enjoying it. So I don’t think I really thought about the pressure to just keep making hits. It was just Salt-N-Pepa have an unusual story. Like we don’t have a story where we were trying that we were shopping music and, you know, it just happened. It was like a train ride to success from hot, cool and vicious all the way through. So, yeah, I don’t know about that. I don’t give myself that type of pressure. Like, I just stay authentic to who I am at any given moment. Yeah, and talking about being authentic and staying true to who you are, what I love about you in this three decades that I’ve been rocking with Salt-N-Pepa, you were kind of like the first female in hip-hop to really talk about God and to really, because, you know,
Saying that you were a Christian and a rapper and talking about God and your music just wasn’t something hip hoppers did. You know, especially from my generation, we came off hardcore. Your relationship with God and you’re very private. What made you go public? What made me go public? My relationship with God has always been important to me. And even though I was making gospel music, I always just wanted to spread the gospel in my music. So I would always put in sprinkles here and there because I was raised in a church, and I know how much Christ has changed my life. And so I’ve always wanted to just be able to share that without beating people over the head with the Bible, but just letting them know where I’m coming from. And so that opportunity really came with Stomp. I was asking Kirk Franklin to be on a song and he asked me to be on a song, which I had no idea that song would be like,
I think it’s the top selling gospel song of all time. The first song that went into the club beside that song. So that was super surprising to me. But it was a great opportunity to just let people know that I love Jesus and I ain’t ashamed. That’s it. And, you know, also, you know, on that Blacks album, one of the top songs was Let’s Talk About Sex. Yeah, you see how it go from God to sex. But it was important. God means sex. It’s all good. God means sex. Because that was an important song at that time. Because we weren’t talking about it properly. We weren’t talking about protections. Did you feel a responsibility or a being able to… How did that song come about that it became so pivotal? And were you surprised that…
that that was like one of the top songs from the album. Yes, I wasn’t surprised. We kind of challenged the radio in the beginning because we knew it was going to be an issue. I dared them, like psyched them out a little bit. I dared them to play this on the radio. And Salt-N-Pepa, we’ve always felt somewhat of responsibility because, you know, you’re on stage and you see a lot of young people in your audience. So it’s always in the back of your mind to say, be able to impart some wisdom or something. So the song was really focused on the fact that we don’t talk about sex, right? And there’s so many things that happen because we’re not communicating with our children, with the youth about sex. So it was to promote responsibility. And what really was interesting is that it just got picked up as like for courses and college and for youth groups and all these different things. And
One day, Peter Jennings, rest in peace, called us and asked us to phase the lyrics because his daughter was listening to the song. He didn’t like that she was listening to the song. He explained the song to him and he was like, oh, we need to do a PSA. So that was around the time when HIV and AIDS, there was so much misinformation about how you get it, you know, how it gets spread. And so he asked us to change the lyrics. And so I changed the lyrics to this, let’s talk about AIDS PSA. And so it’s gone down in history as like, just like one of those songs that’s on college curriculums and all that good stuff. But yeah, we’re just always glad to like use the platform to spread information, you know?
And for people who weren’t around then, Peter Jennings was like the big news guy. He was like, NBC, NBC, I don’t know, but he was like the big news guy. Yeah, he was huge. We were shocked. We were like, oh, okay. You know, when you make music, sometimes you don’t know where it’s going to go. It just kind of takes on a life of its own. And that song was one of those songs that really, really solidified Salt-N-Pepa, you know, musically. And… You know, back then, we’re talking about the late 80s, early 90s. Crossover rap was not a thing. I mean, I don’t know when MC Hammer came out, but he was a crossover rap artist. But Blackstations didn’t even want to play rap music. And nowadays, hip-hop is just integrated into pretty much everything. What do you think about that transition from it being…
a nighttime, something that you play, that the black stations played at night to, you know, being top on the pop charts and being infused into, you know, culture overall. Yeah, that was kind of rough for us because we were crossover and we were pop and that wasn’t our goal. We were just making music that was authentic to us. But we did get a lot of flack of, you know, we heard the words, sell out and all these different things, you know, but that goes back to what I was saying earlier. Like I was not really studying them, you know what I mean? I was just doing what was authentic to me. But yeah, now a pep used to say, pop means popular. Like what’s the problem? Doesn’t everybody want to be popular? Doesn’t everybody want to have international popularity?
doesn’t everyone want to be multi-platinum, win Grammys and all of that stuff, you know? And like you said, it finally crossed over where it’s not putting this street category or this category. If it’s good music, it’s good music. And we just was focused on making good music. So now what do we have going on with Salt-N-Pepa? How many years total? How many years total? Hot Cool and Vicious came out. I want to say I’m just going to round it up like 40 years maybe at this point. 40 years of hip-hop. I know. Time goes by so fast, right? It’s like insane. I used to think 10 years was a long time. 10 years is a blink of an eye. People who’ve been watching you for 40 years, just entertain them. Tell the world what else…
does salt from salt and pepper do in her spare time when you’re not doing anything, you’re not on the road, you’re at home with your family. What is a chill day for you? Oh, a chill day for me. Like right now I’m in Laguna at this, uh, beautiful resort looking at the ocean. And I was going home today because it was my birthday weekend. The girls all left and I’m like, okay, I need some me time. So me time is good for me. Having lunch, sitting by the water, reading. I like to read. I like to write. I’m getting into writing again. I’m actually working on some music that I’m very, very excited about. So being creative, even if it’s not work, it’s still something that I enjoy. And I’m back in the gym feeling good. I see you, Yo-Yo, on your page doing your workout and your cooking. I’m cooking, too. I’ve got cooking stuff.
Tell us a little bit about your journey with healthy meals and meatless dishes. So my daughter is a vegan. I’m not all the way vegan. I’m 80-20. Give me time, guys. I’m working my way there. But I enjoy vegan meals because she’s been introducing me to all these different restaurants. But she had a series of ailments. When she was little, she had… gastrointestinal issues. She had eczema. I was on and on PCOS, like there’s like polyps on her uterus and she was just suffering a lot. And she realized it was because of her diet and that with meat, it makes her body acidic. And so she really healed herself through food, which I thought was fascinating. So I started cooking meals for her.
And I just found that I enjoy it because you kind of got to be creative when there’s no meat. You got to make the food taste good. You got to really put your foot in it, you know. So I always cooked for my family, but this became like a hobby for me that I ended up just putting on IG and just sharing with people. So I’m very much at this stage in my life into health and wellness on a whole nother level because of all the toxins that they put in our food and all the ingredients and all the things that we’re not aware of. So it’s become recently real important to me to like spread that information because so many things we can heal just by what we eat. And when she was a kid, actually, when she was having those gastro issues, sorry, I was taking her to all these doctors and I was like, they don’t know what’s wrong with her. They’re not going to figure it out. I’m sending in stool samples and all kinds of craziness. So I went online and looked up,
And I started giving her honey and apple cider vinegar a spoonful every morning before she went to school. Cleared up her gas issues. So I’m like, wow, we really can heal ourselves through food. Takes a lot of discipline, though. If you make some good dishes on her Instagram, please tell our listeners what’s your Instagram so they can go see you make some delicious food. DA only faults on IG. Duh. Only fault. My girl Salt of Salt-N-Pepa, 35 years. Alani, come on. I know you had the hairstyles. I know Detroit was rocking it. You know that was my first concert. What up, though? I love it, Salt. I love it. What up, though? We love you, Salt. We love you. We love Salt-N-Pepa. And thank you so much for taking time. Congratulations on 35 wonderful 40 years of wonderful music and more beyond. And sisterhood, yes. And that Geico commercial. Oh, all the commercials. Maybe use a cup of music. I know that’s right. Like crazy. We’re at like 900 million streams. I just saw that the other day. I’m like, wow, that’s crazy.
But before I go, and thank you for having me. I love you, ladies. I have a book called Mental Health Matters. It’s not my book. It’s shout out to Millionaire Williams, who is actually the author. But there’s 22 women talking about their mental health matters and their personal stories. And you can get that on Amazon. So go cop that. We love you. Thank you. Love you guys, too. Thank you for having me. Happy belated birthday, Cheryl. Thank you. Turn up, turn up. Bye y’all.
