Salt-N-Pepa say the baton has been dropped

A dash of salt, pepa and shade! '90s hip-hop sensations Salt-N-Pepa stopped by HuffPost Live on Wednesday, December 16, where they discussed the state of hip-hop and the lack of female influences in the genre.

According to Salt (Cheryl James), the baton with the number of current women rappers has "definitely been dropped" and that way back, "female MCs were all the rage."

While most people equate female rappers now to Nicki Minaj, it's hard to think beyond the "Anaconda" hit maker, they point out. "Iggy [Azalea] is what comes to mind," Salt added of another big solo female rapper. "When we coming up, we had like [Queen] Latifah, Lauryn Hill, Lil' Kim, Foxy [Brown] . . . So the baton has been dropped."

Pepa (Sandra Denton) also chimed in on the issue. "We need more. It's baffling to this day," she said, while adding that she supports controversial, button-pushing rapper Azealea Banks — unlike many other professionals in music including Minaj and Iggy. "I am a fan, it's always been and is a male dominated field. . . I'm like come on girl, let's do this!"

The ladies rose to fame with their smash 1987 single, "Push It" followed by 1991's "Let's Talk About Sex," and several other hits. Their latest project is something entirely different: A new Cooking Channel series, Cookin' With Salt-N-Pepa, which is currently airing daily.

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