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Salt 'N Pepa Breaks Their Silence and Reunites for TV Critics Meeting
posted on Jul 18, 2007
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| andra 'Pepa' Denton (l) and Cheryl 'Salt' Wray (r) of the hip hop group, Salt 'N Pepa. |
You remember "Push it." "Let's Talk About Sex." "Shoop." and Whatta Man"?
Salt 'N Pepa's songs are as legendary as the rap duo. Hip-hop was a men-only club prior to their arrival on the music scene. Twelve
million records sold. A first ever Grammy awarded to a female rap group
for Best Rap Performance. Three MTV Video Music Awards.
In 2002, at the height of their success, Salt 'N Pep suddenly called it
quits. Rumors swirled that Salt had found God and Pepa wanted to pursue
an acting career. Despite the speculation, the girls remained silent.
Until now.
Premiering
Monday, Octber 15, "The Salt 'N Pepa Show" on VH1 will follow the
ladies as they attempt to reunite on and off the stage in this funny,
often touching reality series. They soon discover however, that
achieving this is easier said than done since most of their past issues
are still unresolved. Salt is angry about being unappreciated when they
were together and Pepa blames Salt for breaking up the group. Their
lifestyles are also polar opposites: Salt has indeed found God and is
living a quiet life in Long Island with her husbnd while Pepa is still
the party girl and desperately wants to re-capture the glamour of Salt
'N Pepa's glory days. Can they overcome their differences long enough
to heal their friendship and perform again?
Michael Hirschorn, EVP, Original Programming and Production, VH1 says "'The
Salt-n-Pepa Show' will follow these two women as they come to terms
with their past, their very different world views, and a season's worth
of female relationship issues. Don't call this a comeback show. This is
serious, funny, touching, very occasionally deep, about female
friendship, about two smart, strong, adult women working to put a
decade's worth of drama behind them and get busy once again."
Salt
(Cheryl Wray) 'N Pepa (Sandra Denton) appeared together on the stage
during VH1's session at the Television Critics Assn Summer Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to promote their new
reality series. The two are still
obviously working through a bunch of issues and haven't sorted
everything out yet as their appearance was pleasant but still,
tension-filled, particularly as they both gave their version of the
group's break-up.
What made you decide you wanted to do this show? SANDRA DENTON: I think this was definitely a way to explore new ways to work together and also tap into some of those reasons for even breaking up in the first place. So -- CHERYL WRAY: Temporary insanity on my part. I left the group, you know, as I think everybody knows, and it was kind of abrupt. And for a while, we've been trying to figure out how I can still live my life without feeling like I'm compromising the new person that I am and still work together. So Pepa called me about a sitcom, and I was like, "Yeah, I guess I could do that. That would be fun. I can still be home for my kids. That would be like a 9:00 to 5:00." So I went to the William Morris Agency with a sitcom idea that we had developed, and it was based on our lives somewhat like the show. And he suggested Reality TV. And at first, I was like no way because I'm a really private person and I never thought that I could do this. And it was a trying experience for me, but we ended up saying yes. And so we approached VH1, and they loved the idea, and so here we are a year later.
Can you go into what happened in 2002 when you called it quits?
CHERYL WRAY: Oh, Lord. She can go into it. SANDRA DENTON: When you called me? CHERYL WRAY: Go ahead. SANDRA DENTON: Is
that what happened in 2002? Well, in 2002, we were just in the process
of changing management. And with my perception, you know, I had all of
my eggs in the basket with Salt. I just believed that she and I was
going to take the world by storm. We were getting rid of some -- you
know, some people that were part of our team that wasn't, you know,
good business for us. We were moving forward, so I believed. And once
we put that in order and got rid of some of the people, I'm getting a
pedicure, or I'm in the salon, actually Spin Salon at the time, and my
cell phone rings. It was Salt on the phone. And I'm like, "Hey, girl,
what's going on?" And she was just like, basically, "I don't want to be
joined at your hips anymore. I'm through. I'm leaving the group."
I was shocked, but I didn't believe her until I saw that the offers
were coming in and she was really sticking with it and saying "No. I'm
leaving, and I don't want to be a part of it anymore." And I was just
devastated at that moment.
CHERYL WRAY: There
was a lot of things that led up to that point. It had been many years
Salt-n-Pepa had a lot of success, and from my -- it was all fun for
her, but from my perspective, I felt like I didn't have control of my
life. I felt like I was compromising in a lot of ways. I had some other
really deep issues that I won't go into right now, and I was just
tired. It's hard being in a group, you know, year after year after
year, and I needed to do some soul-searching, you know. It's that time
in an artist's career where they need to separate from the business.
And since then I got married. I married my daughter's father. We had
another child. I kind of cleaned up my personal life, and I needed that
time to do that. SANDRA DENTON: Which
is fine, but with your partner, like in any relationship or marriage or
a business, you actually sit down, and you kind of prep that other
person who is involved with you that this is your next step. So it was
-- to me, it was just the way that she did it, and I just never got
over it. I've just been bitter about it and upset, and we just never
really spoke about it. The two went into a rather tenuous exchange about apologizing and moving forward. CHERYL WRAY: And I have apologized for the way I did it many times. Even in writing.
SANDRA DENTON:
She
would just tell me about writing this letter that she sent me, but I
know she did this song that she wrote called "A Letter to Pep." I knew
about that, but I never received a written letter saying "I apologize
to you, Pep."
CHERYL WRAY: It never came back to the house. You usually get a "Return to Sender." SANDRA DENTON: Apologizing means let's make this happen. CHERYL WRAY: Apologizing means let's make some money. Once the money is made, then -- The Salt 'N Pepa Show" premieres on VH1 on Octber 15.
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