Salt-N-Pepa - Blacks' Magic (March 19, 1990)

Having already scored one massive hit very early into their career, the duo Salt-N-Pepa, along with their deejay Spinderella, had earned enough clout to record a project that was a tad bit more personal to them. Said project, Blacks’ Magic, was their third full-length effort, released in 1990, and yes, if you were alive when this particular album first hit store shelves, you’re officially old, like me, and you can pick up your complimentary pair of reading glasses and a lifetime supply of Werther’s Originals at your local city manager’s office, like me.

Blacks’ Magic was conjured up during an eventful period in the group’s lifespan. Sandra “Pepa” Denton was pregnant with her first child, and felt that their music should somewhat reflect the realities of living life, as opposed to basking in the party lifestyle that a lot of their earlier work tended to do. Cheryl “Salt” James also believed that Salt-N-Pepa’s music should expand its scope. Their producer-slash-manager, Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor (whose relationship with Salt ended during the recording of their third album), also found himself too busy to dedicate all of his time to the ladies, even though he was responsible for fully producing their first two projects.

As he was forced to divide his focus between newer clients and his former Sears coworkers James and Denton, he allowed them to look to different beatmakers to help tell their stories. Either he didn’t let them look beyond a one-block radius of the studio, though, or there were some contractual stipulation that prevented them from ever meeting other producers in the game, because Blacks’ Magic ended up being handled in large part by friends (or, in one instance, a blood relative) of Azor’s such as The Invincibles (which is such a cool name for a production team) and Steevee-O the Boy Wonder. Five of the tracks were still produced with Hurby’s assistance, and the guy ended up receiving writing credits on nearly every song on the album, in addition to acknowledgement for coming up with the “album concept” (alongside the rapper-slash-House Party-er Play, interestingly enough - more on him in a bit), but Blacks’ Magic wouldn’t go down in history as a Salt-N-Pepa album without their input, as for the first time, both Salt and Spinderella also began picking up some new skills by crafting beats for their project.

Blacks’ Magic was another success for the group, selling over one million copies and securing even more hit singles on the Billboard charts, so clearly Hurby Azor knew what he was doing (at least when he wasn’t allegedly ripping Salt-N-Pepa off, which is a story for another time). While the album still has its share of clubby songs, it also features several instances of our hosts discussing more serious topics, such as loving yourself, the importance of the word “black” (see: the title track), and, most significantly, sex. Sure, rappers talked about fucking all the time, but they hardly ever spoke on the topic of sex itself, and the potential aftermath (pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, etc.) that comes about when one isn’t fully prepared with all of the information schools seemingly refuse to teach their students, especially under the current administration. Seriously, “Let’s Talk About Sex” is almost thirty years old, and the way things have been going in our country (and around the world), it may as well have been released yesterday, its message is still that potent.

But I digress.

1. EXPRESSION (FEAT. JACCI MCGHEE)

One of five (yes, five) official singles released from Blacks’ Magic, but while it may have clicked back in 1989-1990 (and again in 1992, when the group recorded an updated version), it would have a difficult time finding an audience today. Salt’s production is heavy on the samples, like an older Beastie Boys record, and to their credit, our hosts bring a playful energy to “Expression” just like those guys would have. For a song about encouraging others to express themselves, though, Salt and Pepa sure spend a lot of time talking about their damn selves: after an opening verse that’s all over the fucking place but at least addresses the theme somewhat, our hosts retreat back into boasts-n-bullshit mode, albeit in a generally pop-rap manner. This probably wasn’t the best way to kick off Blacks’ Magic: its sound dates the album significantly, and only the most dedicated of you two would even proceed beyond it (although you should, at least for my sake). Le sigh.

2. DOPER THAN DOPE

Those of you two who are only superficially familiar with Salt-N-Pepa through their radio singles (I’m betting that describes the vast majority of you two) may find yourselves attracted to “Doper Than Dope”, a catchy production (credited to Steevee-O, (also known as Steve Azor, Hurby’s brother, I believe) and The Invincibles) that rides a sample of Bob James’ “Nautilus”, which automatically renders this an engaging track, as our hosts spend the entirety of the run time talking smack and believing in themselves. Pepa and (especially) Salt manage to talk their shit consistently and entertainingly. I especially liked the fake-out toward the end of the third verse, where, instead of seguing into the hook, Salt and Pepa choose to just keep fucking spitting. Also a bit dated, but musically “Doper Than Dope” holds up.

3. NEGRO WIT’ AN EGO

The titular phrase only comes up at the beginning, but the chorus features our hosts urging listeners to “put some faith in your race”, so one would assume they know how this is going to play out, but due to performances that are all over the fucking map, it never really works. Salt and Pepa split microphone duties with their boasts, threats, and calls for action, demanding they be taken seriously not just as women, but as Black women, a theme that would play well today… had Hurby and The Invincibles’ instrumental (which appears to use the same Bobby Byrd “I Know You Got Soul” sample as a fairly well-known Eric B. & Rakim track, but isn’t credited as such anywhere online, so it could just be my imagination, or…) not clashed bizarrely with the words. This was just a mess overall, which is too bad, as there was potential for an important message to be made.

4. YOU SHOWED ME

“You Showed Me” is a relationship song, or rather, it’s a song about the lessons Salt and Pepa have taken away from past failed relationships, their former partners having “showed” them how not to be so shitty as people. The production sidesteps the problem De La Soul had the previous year by choosing to have elements of The Turtles’ “You Showed Me” re-sung as the chorus, as opposed to straight-up sampling from it, which is what got De La, Prince Paul, and Tommy Boy Records in legal hot water, and that choice, combined with the instrumental, gives this track a poppy feel that betrays its message, which a lot of folks in the audience (especially women) should hear: you’re not responsible for your partner’s shit, and you don’t have to put up with it. I wish the song hit harder than it does, but lyrically, it works for me.

5. DO YOU WANT ME

Blacks’ Magic comes across as a mere collection of songs rather than a cohesive album. Perhaps that’s a natural occurrence when up to five singles from the project were used for marketing purposes (read: “sent to radio”). “Do You Want Me” is one of those singles, one that I remember receiving much more airplay than “Expression”, as its sound is deliberately club-ready, and also, it isn’t as preachy as that other track. Coming off of the empowerment anthem “You Showed Me”, “Do You Want Me” travels a more standard route, unfortunately, while booking an Airbnb in similar territory. The male voice on the hook is supposed to act as a “give men a chance, how will you ever know unless you try it” counterpoint, the “it” being his dick, obviously, to Salt and Pepa’s “you had better love me for me” rhymes, but the concepts are seemingly contradictory, or at least they don’t mesh as well as everyone involved would have hoped, as they seem to have been discovered in wildly different writing sessions and then mixed together like peanut butter and Windex. I liked the production, provided by Luv Bug and The Invincibles (now there’s a fucking band name) just fine: it makes me feel nostalgic for a simpler time, back when I wasn’t so concerned with how the United States is becoming more and more of a dumpster fire and how, with each passing day, I hope North Korea just fucking nukes us already. But I don’t really care for the song as a whole. Sue me.

6. SWIFT

For those of you who believe Salt-N-Pepa’s catalog consists solely of radio-friendly club songs and collaborations with En Vogue, well, you wouldn’t still be reading this write-up anyway, so it’s too bad you’ll never get the opportunity to experience “Swift”, which is really. Fucking. Great. The beat, credited to the Boy Wonder and The Invincibles, exists solely as the backdrop for the four verses, which pass through in a flurry of boasts and shit-talk in the vein of Big Daddy Kane or Kool G. Rap: hell, Kane could have taken this beat and turned it into another hit, it is that good. But the ladies don’t slouch, even though I only really heard Salt’s vocals on “Swift”: I have no doubt that Pepa was present, but either the engineer in the studio with them that day fucked with their voices so that they sounded awfully alike, or this is really a Salt solo effort (the liner notes provide absolutely no assistance with this), which, if that’s the case, a standing ovation to Cheryl “Salt” James for an absolutely fucking fantastic performance. This shit is far more lyrical than, say, “Let’s Talk About Sex”, a track we haven’t even gotten to yet, and our hosts prove they are very capable of ripping the mic to pieces. You want hidden gems? I got your hidden gem right here. You’ll want to hear “Swift”. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.

7. I LIKE TO PARTY

Sadly, for every “Swift” one receives, you also must get a generic party song that evaporates from your consciousness while the track is still playing, or maybe that was just my experience, as I now have to somehow write a paragraph about the blandly-titled Vengaboys prequel “I Like To Party” (in case you two couldn’t figure out which environment this song was crafted for) and I honestly cannot remember anything about it, except Salt and (definitely this time) Pepa both delivering inoffensive lyrics about partying over a beat-by-committee that didn’t do anything for me, so maybe pause the reading and go back to listening to “Swift” for the fifth time today? (And that, fellow writers, is how you do it.)

8. BLACKS’ MAGIC

As helpfully explained during the second verse, this song (and title track) is called “Blacks’ Magic” as a way for the group to take back the word “black”, which has been associated almost exclusively with the negative aspects of society, of which they provide examples. (Retailers would argue that "Black Friday" is an outlier, but all that has done for humanity is cause families to be ripped apart on Thanksgiving so that people can wait in like to be trampled at the local Wal-Mart while trying to purchase a fourth television, so our hosts are definitely on to something here.) It’s too bad the concept hadn’t been fleshed out further, as most of this Spinderella and The Invincibles instrumental is standard-issue shit-talking, but hey, I appreciate the effort that was clearly put in here.

9. START THE PARTY

Speaking of outliers, “Swift” will appear to be a distant memory in the rearview mirror by the time you get to “Start The Party”, the second song about partying in three tracks. It’s not that this is bad necessarily: it sounds much better than “I Like To Party”, and I enjoyed it enough. But it does seem like Salt (who also produced) and Pepa were chasing trends here, as the flows exhibited here were clearly influenced by popular songs from the likes of J.J. Fad and Oaktown’s 357. Again, though, they pull it off well, and you’ll probably find something to like about “Start The Party”, at least more than you would, say, “Let’s Talk About Sex”, but never “Push It”, as that is Salt-N-Pepa’s peak). I felt like this should have been more, though.

10. LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX

I’ve talked a lot of shit at the expense of “Let’s Talk About Sex” tonight, but I want to clear the air: I like this song, but more so, I feel it is important. There are hardly any rap tracks that are sex-positive in a way that could actually help society, especially from the female end of the spectrum, especially those who were popular enough to also be in a position where they could inform listeners of the consequences of sex they may not naturally think about in the moment (read: “all the good things and the bad things that may be”). Hip hop needs more songs like “Let’s Talk About Sex”, which literally features them talking about sex, not talking about having sex, as some of you two may have misconstrued. The reason I’m a little tough on it today is just due to overexposure: this was a huge hit around my way, and I’m kind of tired of it. But the message never grows old, so kudos to Salt and Pepa for having the balls to release this song in the first place, let alone as a single: who knows how many conversations this track has started, or how many STDs and unwanted pregnancies this prevented. I do seem to remember the Luv Bug and The Invincibles beat having a much fuller and louder sound, but whatever. (Even more important to the cause was a quasi-remake of this song entitled “Let’s Talk About AIDS”, where Salt and Pepa altered the lyrics to specifically address the epidemic. I will give them credit: they went all-in on the subject, and hopefully at least one person learned something from all of this.)

11. I DON’T KNOW (FEAT. KID-N-PLAY)

The concept itself is fine: Salt and Pepa are in failing relationships with guest stars (and fellow artists sharing their same producer-slash-manager) Kid-N-Play (is this the first time they’ve appeared on the blog? That’s weird), and “I Don’t Know” consists of their final arguments leading to both couples breaking up. I liked how each verse only featured one girl and one guy, and how the fights were realistic in that way where you don’t exactly know why you’re upset (except for Play, who is portrayed as a “slut”, a description that wouldn’t fly today, regardless of gender), but you just know somehow that this isn’t working. Both Kid and Play are amiable guests who fall into the scene with ease, and our hosts carry the weight of the decision on their respective shoulders. But the Luv Bug/Invincibles instrumental was boring. So.

12. LIVE AND LET DIE

Paul McCartney receives a writing credit and possible royalties because Wings’ “Live and Let Die” was sampled here, so yay, I guess? But that doesn’t make this song suck any less. Yeah.

13. INDEPENDENT (FEAT. SYBIL)

The final song of the evening (unless you live overseas, where you would have one additional remix to sit through, which I will not be covering as I don’t have it) is a celebration of a woman’s independence, where Salt and Pepa take the reins to exert dominance. Appropriately, “Independent” was written and produced solely by Salt, who also brought in R&B singer Sybil to perform the chorus. Instead of keeping the focus on “mak[ing]” my own money” and such, “Independent” segues into our hosts terminating a relationship with a freeloading lover, which then alternates between dumping him and taunting him with their success. It’s a mixed message, certainly, but it could have been much worse, I guess. And with that, we’re finished here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: As I mentioned above, Blacks’ Magic comes across more as a collection of singles than it does a cohesive album. Its sample-based sound is much more fully realized than it had been on their previous efforts, though, as everyone involved in the project has had sufficient time to hone their respective crafts, especially Salt, whose three solo efforts behind the boards betray a talent that you two may not have necessarily seen coming from a duo whose radio hits are the only ones you likely know. (Her work alongside Hurby and The Invincibles on “I Like To Party” notwithstanding, of course, because the blame for that shouldn’t fall on just her.) Blacks’ Magic is an album full of girl power/independent women messages that are still very relevant today, which means we just suck as a society, as one would think we would have figured this shit out in the nearly thirty years that have passed since this album dropped: hell, people are still too fucking afraid to talk about sex in a knowledgeable manner, and yet they wonder why abstinence-only teachings aren’t working. Lyrically, Pepa and (especially) Salt are excited, excitable, and ready to flow: even if they weren’t responsible for every single one of their own syllables at this moment in time, they were still writing lyrics, and they sell them well, especially as they seem to have much more to say on here. I wish the overall sound of Blacks’ Magic wasn’t as dated as it is, since that will prove to be a deterrent for hip hop heads under a certain age threshold, but while this isn’t a great album by any means, there are some truly excellent moments, and they deserve to be heard.

BUY OR BURN? I feel a burn is sufficient here. But as I said above, that doesn’t mean there aren’t worthwhile efforts included on here, as evidenced by the below tracks.

BEST TRACKS: “Swift”; “Doper Than Dope”; “Swift” fifty more times

-Max

RELATED POSTS:

You can read a bit more of the Salt-N-Pepa story by clicking here.