It was just an explosion of creativity, of passion, of drama that resonated into a sound, a music, a movement. Pep and Hurby used to fight like cats and dogs. SALT Pep always says, “Hurby is our third,” and the chemistry between the three of us was explosive on so many levels. I had a difficult time in the beginning, jumping on the beat. He wanted it said, done - this kind of way and no other way. When Hurby felt that I was the one that will be Pepa, I was thrown in the studio. PEPA For me, with hip-hop, it was a way of life - we had these park jams where the turntables are getting electricity from the light poles. In an early scene, we see Hurby (played by Cleveland Berto) drilling Pepa (played by Laila Odom) to rap without her Jamaican accent, and Salt (played by GG Townson) caught in the middle. When hip-hop came along, it was an opportunity to realize something that I was passionate about - and that was through Hurby. My mom took me to all the Broadway plays, and I took singing lessons and dance lessons, and I did productions at home with my cousins for my aunties. Being an artist was something that he embodied and transferred over to us.

How much did you grapple with the decision to emphasize his character? “Pep called and was like, ‘Girl, we have to do our movie before someone else does.’” Latifah, an old friend, attended meetings where they picked the director (Mario Van Peebles) and screenwriter (Abdul Williams of “The Bobby Brown Story”).įor a movie about the journey of two women, your producer and manager Hurby Azor, known as “Luv Bug,” plays a big role as a crucial creative force, especially at the beginning. “It was something me and Pep had been shopping around,” Salt said. The film - which they executive produced along with Queen Latifah and others - begins and ends on a note of unity, showing their 2005 reunion for a VH1 event. The group’s longtime D.J., Spinderella, is a character in the film, too, but the biopic doesn’t cover her unsuccessful lawsuit against the duo, which was filed in 2019.

It was just the beginning: James became Salt and Denton became Pepa the group changed its name and scored 10 hits on the Hot 100, including the ’80s dance classic “Push It” and the ’90s sex anthem “Shoop,” becoming one of the few superstar female acts of hip-hop’s male-dominated golden era.įixtures on the I Love the ’90s tour circuit in recent years, the two tell their story in a new Lifetime biopic, “Salt-N-Pepa,” out Saturday, that captures both the rush of touring the world and the conflicts that broke them up in 2002. While selling warranties on washing machines from a Sears call center in Queens, the friends Cheryl James and Sandra Denton came together as a hip-hop duo called Super Nature with the staccato 1985 track “The Show Stoppa (Is Stupid Fresh).” When they first heard it on the radio, they danced together on top of a car.

Pepa from salt and pepa