★★★★★
A few years ago, this trio of female rappers cracked the popcharts with hits like "Let's Talk About Sex," an articulate, funny,and danceable primer on sex and the single flygirl that hitmale-dominated hip-hop where it hurt. Their raps had the delicioushonesty of conversations one might overhear in a women's room. ToSNP, self-esteem and sexual independence weren't everything, theywere the only thing...
- ew.com
2011-03-03
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
"Shake Your Thang" is a stroke because as a duo they can come out for two opposing sexual prerogatives at once--one does, the other doesn't, and it's nobody's thang but hers either way. Nor does E.U. hurt their soul. Elsewhere, the confusion signalled by the "See label for Sequencing" is reflected in ordinary rhymes, scattershot beats, and a second Isleys cover, this one masquerading as a Beatles cover.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
they go their own way, they know whereof they speak, they sample Whitney's mama ("Shoop," "Whatta Man," "I've Got AIDS")
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
In the updated "Tramp" (former A side of "Push It," bargain hunters), two gals dis an easy lay cum slave to his dick, but elsewhere the raps are only the gender change you'd hope, not the one you couldn't have imagined--feisty, not too reverse-macho, yet fairly predictable. What I love is how the sampled hooks and not-so-predictable scratches pounce out of the mix, always good for a shiver of recognition/dissociation. And the change is certainly due.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Though I wish these Hurby Luv Bug disciples were as gimmicky as their preceptor, the beats grab and the lyrics hold. They're too centered, too grounded to cop any attitude; some of their best moments are snatches of fabricated ordinary conversation, like the embarrassed 10-second should-we-or-shouldn't-we that leads into "Let's Talk About Sex" (some remixer should sample Salt's "C'mon, why not?" for everything it's worth)...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
For Salt-N-Pepa's first single
in four years, the queens of the female rap scene appear to be
studying the competition a bit too closely ? ''R U Ready'' resembles Foxy Brown's smash ''I'll Be'' in more than a few ways,
from the instrumental hook and mid-tempo groove down to the
male-rap cameo. It's hard to resist their good-timey strut,
though: When they chant, ''Everybody make way/party people comin'
through,'' you obey gladly. B...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Sometimes small pleasures are all you need. Salt-N-Pepa's beatsaren't complex or dramatic, but they serve just fine as a backdropfor the group's two rappers on Blacks' Magic, lightly acid-tongued women who havesomething to say ? or, as rappers might put it, "drop science" ? abouttwo big subjects. One is men, especially men who (as in "I Don'tKnow," a duet with rappers Kid 'N Play) want sex more than love...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
What's brand-new for these older sisters of hip-hop: an ode to God, tracks so buttery you can call them buppie rap, a slice of apocalyptic raunch, and a slinky anti-prejudice collaboration with Sheryl Crow that succeeds despite platitudinous lyrics. What's not so new anymore: skimpy old-school beats, boasts about their career and staying power, and rote odes to male booty. It's telling of the changes in rap that S-N-P now seem like old-fashioned good girls acting bad....
- ew.com
2009-06-12