Dear Salt-N-Pepa,

We’re toasting to you Salt, Pepa, and Spinderella, our newest Rock and Roll Hall of Famers! Thank you for reminding the world what it looks like when women in hip-hop take their rightful place in history.

Before any of us knew what confidence sounded like, it already had your rhythm.

You ladies were the beat behind every girl who learned to walk into a room like she owned it, the echo that told us our voices could move crowds long before algorithms ever did.

I grew up hearing “Push It” and “Shoop” in the background of my childhood, songs that felt like sunshine in a speaker. My mom would light up every time they came on. When I told her I was writing a love letter to Salt-N-Pepa, she smiled before I could even finish the sentence. To her, you were more than music. You were a mirror, proof that Black women could be bold, beautiful, and in charge of their own narrative.

“They totally impacted my life and my style in high school,” she told me. “They’re the reason I started wearing ripped jeans with leather jackets. Me and my friends made dance routines at parties because of them. They just made being a girl in hip-hop cool.”

Her stories painted the picture of what you meant to her generation, women being seen, heard, and hyped up at the same time.

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The post Salt-N-Pepa Didn’t Just Make Music — They Made Room For Black Women To Be Heard: A Love Letter appeared first on MadameNoire.