Released: May 16, 1994

Featuring: Styowlz

Songwriter: Herby “Luvbug” Azor

Producer: Herby “Luvbug” Azor Steve Azor

Artist: Salt N Pepa f/ Styowlz
Album: Heaven 'N Hell 12"
Song: Heaven 'N Hell (remix)

CHORUS
Children play, women produce
Kids killing kids just for the juice
Now Africa is looking for the truth
But it's gonna take a while to enlighten the youth

In this edition of the story, no need to bore me
It can't do nothin' for me, even Denzel Washington couldn't find any
Glory
In the overcrowded streets of the city
I know it's (shitty), but I can do without the pity
(Baby never lived in the ghetto)...or the projects
But I wear my Tim boots and Hi-Tecs and I wrecks havoc
And if you try to play me I won't have it
Trix are for kids, this kid is not a silly rabbit

(Well) He's standin' on a corner with his system pumpin' loud
Next him goin' off, scream in the crowd
A whole lot of screams, a lot of broken glass
Brothers like to wear their pants fallin' off their ass
Girls today don't wear no bras
Little John Doe got a ho turnin' tricks in the bars
Grandma carries a can of mace
And she'll stick a .45 in your face

So come and meet my man Brett (Yo, what up, Brett?)
He's smokin', but it's not a cigarette (Speak on it, Pep)
I wonder how the hell a brother lets himself
Get into somethin' he can't out of? (Uh-huh, uh-huh)
A lot of my friends are sick and tired (Sick of who?)
The police (Word!) rollin' on 'em, pickin' on, holdin' on 'em
Hopin' that they got one of 'em
It was a drug bust, but something's weird
(Well, what's the matter, Spinderella?)
The way half a million disappeared

CHORUS
Children play, women produce
Kids killing kids just for the juice
Now Africa is looking for the truth
Do you think the other Man to enlighten the youth

Heaven and hell is on earth
Heaven and hell is on earth

Who gives a damn about me?
(Huh?) Me (what?), me, yeah, little old me
Me, myself, and I
Live or die, laugh or cry
I'm all that I got, Pops, and that's a lot, Hops
I'd rather rot in jail before I ho-hop
Go 'head, me, tell 'em
They may be hard of hearing
So keep yellin' at the top of your lungs
Now everybody's got guns
They wanna be hard rocks and not be a fool
That buys a history book
Not me, I'll need a clock, not rock to my hits
And that two-fifth click to my kids
If nothin's gonna flip then I'm-a have to rip sh...
Ah, go for yours cuz you gotta
In the ghetto you don't get a medal if you settle for the drama
She's a gangster and the other terminal cancer
Ask too many questions and my Smith and Wesson will answer

Heaven and hell is on earth
Heaven and hell is on earth

Well everybody be damned, her father's in jail
Sister's on the corner screamin', "Booty for sale"
Mom spends the night gettin' drunk with her uncle
Her brother's sellin' radios and toasters by the trunkful
See, every man she ever messed would wind up dead
Some might fall in jail, others runnin' from the Feds
(The only thing she ever loved was a piece of lead)
And that's a double-barrelled pump underneath the bed

Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs and looney tunes
And some got sad songs, mad songs, and moody blues
The good news is God's news, with Him you can't lose
Hell is here on earth, the heaven you can choose
There's a choice, you got one, son, know where I'm comin' from?
Choose one, you better choose one

Children play, women produce
Kids killing kids just for the juice
Now Africa is looking for the truth
But it's gonna take a while to enlighten the youth

Heaven and hell is on earth
Heaven and hell is on earth

Children play, women produce
Just for the juice
For will you get there to enlighten the youth

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.