Salt N Pepa Reveal They Hated "Push It" As They Mark 30 Years In The Rap Biz

BOSSIP: What do you think about the female artists today?

Salt: “For me, it’s the different voices. Queen Latifah, she was the Queen. Salt N Pepa, we were the fun, fashion and femininity. Lyte was hardcore. Lauryn Hill was conscious. Foxy was bad ass, Lil Kim was sexy. There was such a variety of choices. Now, it’s just like, where do you go?…We just don’t have that choice anymore. It’s not there.”

Pepa: “We just need more. We love our Iggy, we love our Nicki.”

Salt: “Nicki is very talented. Pep puts them together. She calls them ‘Niggy.’ She’s like, ‘All we got is Niggy!’ Don’t use that!! Pep said it!”

BOSSIP: Tell us about your cross-country “I Love The 90s” tour with Vanilla Ice, Tone Loc and Coolio.

Pepa: “The tour is huge. Every time we get there, we look in the parking lot were like ‘Why are you people here?’ It’s so packed, and then when we look at at the arena, we’re like, ‘Can you believe this? It’s like the 90s.”

Salt: It’s kind of mind boggling to me…The only thing that we can attribute it to is that we take you back to a great itme in your life. Women come up to us and say, ‘You got me through an abusive relationship. You got me through college. You inspired me. You’re so strong. And we meant a lot to people. We grew up with them.”

BOSSIP: We hear you’re working on a new album.

Salt: “We’re in the studio. We’re working. We’ve got some stuff laid down. We’re experimenting. We’re reaching out to producers. So, I always tell Pep, it’s a little intimidating to me when you have legendary songs like “Push It” and “Let’s Talk About Sex” and “Whatta Man,” you almost can get a fear that you’re competing with your legendary music. But she always goes ‘Girl, people want to hear from us. Go for it. Don’t think about what you did, think about where you are right now and go from there.’”

BOSSIP: Tell us the story behind “Push It.”

Salt: “Push it? We hated it. It was on the B-side of “Tramp,” and we felt like it was just a throw away song just to put “Tramp” out. We thought it was too pop.”

Pepa: “We were getting flack at the time for being crossover and too pop. They were like ‘they’re not street.” And with Push it, we thought they were really gonna throw us under the bus.”

Salt: And that ended up being the biggest, most popular Salt N Pepa record ever. The record that we did not like.”

This interview was edited for space and clarity.