Released: October 21, 1997

Featuring: Queen Latifah Mad Lion

Songwriter: Treach Vanessa Powers Joseph Powell Sandra “Pepa” Denton Queen Latifah

Producer: Josef Powell Sandra “Pepa” Denton

Mad Lion:

Oh someone go on like them ya born to find if I bought them
Born for prime star
They are my friend, or they are my enemy
So you call them frienemy, understand me
We don't have no time for playin' so you know what
Yeah, scream out
Come lay down Salt and Pepa is a team
Mad Lion representin' VP, you know how we do
You 'bout to say to yourself, what what
Say one, then some
The paper, can't understand, uh
One degree says, she can't understand
Oh some friend come, wait, you been scammed
The thing that everone thought
Bought the Mr. Lover some

Sandra "Pepa" Denton:

Queen, honey bee wannabes
They want to be in front of me
But it ain't no run in me
That's word to my son and me
Now you wanna be family cuz you see the Grammies (Yeah)
Playin' me close, ask me where's my man, how's my man
Sandy be damned be, I keeps the cheese handy
Got the trap for you rats come strapped with the gammy
Jealousy be swellin' me, word
So I had to charge 'em at will
And leave a bill, like Bellamy
What are you tellin' me
Don't let me catch a felony
People trip out, bring out the hell in me
But I stay paid in full, faithful, and always grateful
Stay on guard, praise God, pity the hateful

Mad Lion:

Said why you gotta be like that, uh
We make your money, bought you watch and my stacks, uh
I know you wanna play the games we play
Only man, finds his car fade away, hey
Why you gotta be like that, uh
Only one-ninety people stepped back, uh

Sandra "Pepa" Denton:

Friends to the end for the ends did ya favors
Damn, why you wanna stick me for my papers

Cheryl "Salt" James:

Would have gave you the world now you can't catch a crumb
How you bum-bum-bitty come so dumb-dumb
Remember when you was all busted, broke down, beat up
Even kept you as a friend when you stole to stay steed-up
Wanna be down with my business, we meet up
Schemin' like a demon on the couch with your feet up
Playin' like a summer may stain by far
Got mad I had the juice so you tried to take the jar
I feel for you, yes, I do
No fame, no crew, now what you gon' do, Boo
He say, she say, we say, why say
The fly-ways my way
The try fray, hit the highway

Mad Lion:

Say one, then some
The paper, can't understand, uh
One degree says, she can't understand
Oh some friend come, wait, you been scammed
The thing that everone thought
Bought the Mr. Lover some
Said why you gotta be like that, uh
We make your money, bought you watch and my stacks, uh
I know you wanna play the games we play
Only man, finds his car fade away, hey

Queen Latifah:

You smile in my face but all the while you wanna take my place
Put it on a paper chase and you can't keep my pace
You're jealous cuz I'm this shit and you ain't
Far as I'm concerned, I don't know you from a can of paint (Hey yo, who you)
No time to worry about who likes me, who didn't invite me
Behind my back callin' me shysty, that don't excite me
Backstabbers keepin' that he said, she said runnin'
Always in my business, I leave when I see you comin' (Yo, I'm out)
See you got the game twisted, I could care less
My house is bought and paid for, your rent's due, you're stressed
Nevertheless, you wanna keep some drama on blast
But I don't worry cuz I'm quick to come and check that ass

Mad Lion:

They're spine behind your face
But meantime, they wanna take your place
Those back-stabbers, hey, back-stabbers

Sandra "Pepa" Denton & Cheryl "Salt" James:

Check it, everybody sees you as preemy and teeny
You see me in 3-D, and need me like a genie
All your wishes are washed up like lock up
We need to write a book called Shit That Botched Up
One thing that Sandi can't understand
The all the world jet but see a plentiful of hands
So tell me, how can we shake 'em, firmly you break 'em
Get 'em hot, and bake 'em, run to miss 'em, I may say
Chase me cuz I don't chase them, chill, in fact
Like friends we are family with a bill attatched
Pep's that green-eyed monster, make them ill and that
Well if envy ever tempt me, Salt steer me back

Mad Lion:

Said why you gotta be like that, uh
We make your money, bought you watch and my stacks, uh
I know you wanna play the games we play
Only man, finds his car fade away, hey
Never never, never should you get paper
Think you better, better, get up, get up this place
Some new, shit, on my tounge and lip
Only one time, then, I will be done with it, go
Some will get with it, some will get wrecked with it
Some will host and they claim, that they say, we did
You faced it and if you why, sack and I messed with
His name was ah-uh-huh-uh-huh, forget this shit
Mad Lion is sick
No bed could get up in this re-lyrical
Full of new time threat, hey
I got my rhymes and the national anthem
Got more rhymes than either Oleen or Tonet
Got more rhymes than they made us sweat
Of a nigga, of a crooked waitin' for the damn check, uh
But let's not forget the, back-biters is the name of this set, uh
All the people, and we know you bite mine
Soldier people shall shine
Yo' come in the next track, up this

Salt-N-Pepa

Salt-N-Pepa is arguably the most successful female rap group of all time. The group began with Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton meeting while studying to be nurses. James got Denton a job at a Sears department store, where her boyfriend Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor also worked. Azor was studying music production and he asked them to help on a school project, an answer record to Doug E. Fresh’s “The Show” they named “The Showstopper” – recorded in 1985 under the name Supernature.

After the legendary Queens DJ Marley Marl played “The Showstopper” on his radio show, the group began getting booked for shows. One lyric in “The Showstopper” was ‘We the salt and pepper’, and people kept requesting ‘that salt and pepper song’, so they changed their name to Salt-N-Pepa. Deejay Deidra “Spinderella” Ropa was added soon after.

SNP’s debut album Hot, Cool, & Vicious originally spawned a minor hit in the UK with “My Mike Sounds Nice” in early 1987. But it was the re-release of a remix of “Push It”, originally a quickly-thrown together b-side for their fall ‘87 single “Tramp”, that shot the group into international stardom. The song reached the top 10 in eleven countries around the world in 1988.