Their debut album, Hot, Cool & Vicious (1986), sold more than 1 million copies in the US, making them the first female rap act to achieve gold and platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

[11][12] The pair became close friends, and also co–workers at Sears, along with future celebrities Kid N' Play and Martin Lawrence.

Another co-worker Hurby "Luv Bug" Azor was studying music production at the Center of Media Arts and had his then-girlfriend Cheryl James, and also Sandra Denton, record a song for him as a class project he had to do.

[13] This resulted in the song "The Showstopper", an answer record to Doug E. Fresh's hit single "The Show"[14] by the duo, who originally called themselves Super Nature.

Azor passed the song along to his friend Marley Marl who hosted a weekend rap show on a New York City radio station.

The independent Pop Art Records stepped in and offered to give the song an official release, and "The Show Stoppa (Is Stupid Fresh)" [sic] became a modest R&B hit,[14] reaching No.

Before starting work on a full-length album, Azor recruited DJ Latoya Hanson (called Spinderella) into Salt-N-Pepa.

Hot, Cool & Vicious included some moderate rap/R&B radio hits such as "The Showstopper", "My Mic Sound Nice", and "Tramp", but when San Francisco DJ and producer Cameron Paul created a remix to "Push It", the B-side of the "Tramp" single, it gave the group their first major hit.

[14] "Push It" (US #19, UK #2) became a platinum single in the United States, and a hit in several other countries, and was added to subsequent pressings of Hot, Cool & Vicious.

[20] Salt-N-Pepa's next album, A Salt with a Deadly Pepa, was released on July 26, 1988, and contained the top 10 R&B hit "Shake Your Thang", featuring the go-go band E.U.

By the time of their next album release, Salt-N-Pepa had gone through the legal process of completely breaking away from Azor, whom they accused of unfair royalty payments.

The group toured in support of the album, but without any promotion from the bankrupt label, they only scored minor hits with "R U Ready" and "Gitty Up".

Although not as big a seller as its predecessor, it kept intact an unbroken string of gold or platinum studio albums by the trio.

With no albums contractually due at the time, Salt decided to quit the group, stating she had enough of the music industry and no longer wanted to be involved in it.

She hosted The Backspin (with DJ Mo'Dav), a nationally syndicated weekly radio show featuring old school hip hop music.

All three women reunited the following year for the next Hip Hop Honors program and performed "Whatta Man" with En Vogue.

Spinderella has a daughter, with former NBA player Kenny Anderson, who has appeared on MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen in 2008.

The Salt-N-Pepa Show chronicled events in the lives of Pepa and Salt as they work out past issues.

That August, Pepa released an autobiography titled Let's Talk About Pep, co-written by Karen Hunter, which features an introduction by Queen Latifah and an epilogue by Missy Elliott.

To accompany the book, she launched her own social network for fans and also starred in the reality TV series Let's Talk About Pep on VH1.

[28] Other acts on the tour included Whodini, Rob Base, Kurtis Blow, Doug E Fresh, Biz Markie, Naughty By Nature, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane, Kool Moe Dee, Slick Rick, and Chubb Rock.

On November 21, 2011, Salt-N-Pepa appeared on The X Factor Australia's third season with contestant and finalist Johnny Ruffo.

On July 30, 2012, Salt-N-Pepa opened for rap group Public Enemy in Brooklyn, New York as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series.

[30] The trio performed in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada for Westerner Days at the Enmax Centrium on July 21, 2016.

On October 16, 2018, Salt-N-Pepa appeared on the U.S. version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, with Kid N Play serving as their "plus one" in-studio lifeline.

[37] On January 23, 2021, Lifetime released an eponymous biopic, directed by Mario Van Peebles, which starred GG Townson as Salt, Laila Odom as Pepa, Monique Jasmine Paul as DJ Spinderella, Cleveland Berto as Hurby Azor, and featured Daniel Keith Morrison as MC Hammer, Denver Taylor as Martin Lawrence, Bronson Phillip Lake as Christopher "Kid" Reid, and Devante Senior as Christopher "Play" Martin.