NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. You only live once, and you're not coming back.Ĭopyright © 2021 NPR. SALT-N-PEPA: (Rapping) You know life, oh, yeah, is all about expression. But they're in service of a different story - to give props to a legendary group whose history should have been told like this long before now. It shows how essential Black viewers, especially Black women, have become to traditional cable channels.īest of all, the film deploys classic elements of all Lifetime movies - female friendships found, lost and found again, abusive, cheating men shown the door.
Playon lifetime tv movie#
That this movie is coming from female-centered cable channel Lifetime instead of an outlet focused on Black viewers like BET, TV One or OWN is important.
Don't you like it when the music drop?ĭEGGANS: Executive produced by Queen Latifah and directed by Mario Van Peebles, the film is a bit more ambitious and authentic than many biopics. SALT-N-PEPA: (Rapping) Go ahead, girls - express yourself. ODOM: (As Sandra Pepa Denton) That's the best you got? There's nothing I could tell Cheryl that she don't already know.ĭEGGANS: For rap fans of a certain age, this film is packed with nostalgia, offering the backstory behind hits like "Shoop," "Push It" and Salt's anthem for creative independence, "Expression." You say anything about the night, I'll drop you quicker than a teenage flop. I let those other rappers be gangsta nasty because what I found out is the music you make reflects the life you live. And when Pepa caught Hurby cheating on Salt in a club, he called her the worst insult he could think of - ghetto.īERTO: (As Hurby Azor) I don't do ghetto. Neither Salt nor Pepa were all that excited about rapping until Hurby pushed them. Comic Martin Lawrence and rap duo Kid 'n Play answered phones there, too, before they got famous. Early on, they worked in one of the most star-studded Sears call centers of all time. I'm going to show you how it's supposed to be 'cause (ph) we, the Salt and Pepa MCs, will chance.ĭEGGANS: The film drops all kinds of cool tidbits.
Please, please please.ĭEGGANS: The song that resulted, "The Showstopper," got play on New York City radio and provided their name. SALT-N-PEPA: (Singing) Please, please, please don't stop. All right? They come here with the show, we come with "The Showstopper." Hip-hop is all about attitude, all right? We got to go in there, let them know we're here, and we ain't scared. This track is going to get us recognized. They're going to be, like, who is these girls dissin' us?īERTO: (As Hurby Azor) That's the exact point. ODOM: (As Sandra Pepa Denton) Because we dissin' (ph) Doug E. LAILA ODOM: (As Sandra Pepa Denton) Yo, are you sure you want me to say everything on this page?ĬLEVELAND BERTO: (As Hurby Azor) Yeah. But when Salt got a friend who worked with her at Sears to rap on Hurby's diss track, Sandra Pepa Denton wasn't so sure. Back in the day, up-and-coming rap acts got attention by cutting diss tracks - catchy singles that insulted big stars. In the mid-'80s, Cheryl Salt James was dating an aspiring producer, Hurby Luv Bug Azor, who had a million-dollar idea. SALT-N-PEPA: (Singing) I wanna shoop (ph), baby, shoop.ĭEGGANS: Like any good origin story, Lifetime's Salt-N-Pepa" soars highest when documenting early success. But it is a scrappy, fun, emotional look at a group that challenged the male-centered rap world and sold more than 15 million records powered by some of the hippest tunes in rap history. It is not a prestige project filled with big names destined to become a darling of highbrow critics. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans has this review.ĮRIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Before we talk about what Lifetime's movie "Salt-N-Pepa" is, let's spend a moment on what it is not. MARTIN: Tonight, the cable channel Lifetime is airing a new scripted biopic about the pioneering group known as the first ladies of hip-hop. SALT-N-PEPA: (Rapping) Salt-N-Pepa's here, and we're in effect. Rap duo Salt-N-Pepa were hit machines in the 1980s and '90s with huge songs like "Let's Talk About Sex," their collaboration with En Vogue, "Whatta Man," and "Push It."
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