Salt-N-Pepa @ Wisconsin State Fair, Aug. 15
Salt-N-Pepa promised, not a mere show, but an experience at their Bank Mutual Amphitheater at their at the Wisconsin State Fair Saturday night. If by “experience” they meant a farrago of fun that adds up to a sort of variety show, the ladies succeeded. Rappers Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandy “Pepa” Denton reminisced sweetly over their late-’80s and mid-’90s heydays on radio and cable music video outlets. Denton spoke especially fondly of fans who told her of dressing like Salt-N-Pepa for Halloween. Both women revel in their status as purveyors of old-school hip-hop.
A headlining set of under 75 minutes still should have allowed them to perform all their hits and maybe given their DJ, Dee Dee “Spinderella” Roper, to have a scratching solo (it looked like she was really using her turntables, at least occasionally). But remember, this was an experience. So there was more than music and dancing from their two male accomplices in suitably retro track pants and T-shirts.
The guys were put to use in a series of short skits chronicling the romantic lives of women on the make for a man who isn’t a scrub. Yes, the relevant TLC song that may have just come to your mind was excerpted, as were oldies by Gloria Gaynor, Gwen Guthrie and others. The playacting led naturally enough to their take on Otis Redding and Carla Thomas’ “Tramp.” Salt, Pep’ and Spin’ may well have the chops that would have abetted in the kind of comedic movie making that at least some of their contemporaries engaged, such as The Fat Boys.
Less productive, though no less crowd pleasing, was a medley of catchphrase call-and-response from other rappers’ records (Biz Markie, Black Sheep, etc.) and dancing to ’80 and ’90s artists ranging from Michael Jackson, Cindy Lauper, Nirvana and—perhaps appropriate, with the fair’s grandstand show that night being the glam metal bill Hair At The Fair—Guns N’ Roses.
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The shenanigans left some Salt-N-Pepa material relegated to medley fodder. Shameful as it may have been for successes like “Do You Want Me” and their nod to Washington D.C.’s go-go beat, “Shake Your Thang,” the same sort of brevity seemed appropriate for singles from their first album, Hot, Cool & Vicious. Deigning to assay such early material acknowledges that some of their audience is interested in more than their MTV fodder.
One of those Music Television mainstays, “Whatta Man” gave Spinderella her shot at the mic. It also provided the night’s biggest surprise. Among the audience members invited onstage were a couple who went through a marriage proposal mid-tune.
As probable matter of course, the evening’s penultimate number was the one with the video that must have inspired many trick-or-treaters’ costumes. Indeed, Salt and Pepa donned replicas of the jackets they sported for the “Push It” video, one of pop’s enduring odes to sexual voracity.
