On Wednesday morning Cheryl ‘Salt’ James and Sandra ‘Pepa’ Denton of the iconic hip-hop duo Salt-N-Pepa co-hosted an episode of the Emmy-nominated daytime talk show The Real alongside regular hosts Loni Love, Adrienne Houghton and Jeannie Mai. (Newcomer Garcelle Beauvais was absent.)
Naturally, the conversation turned to the pair’s recent biopic, which aired on Lifetime in January. Generally well-received, the film was shadowed by criticism from the group’s third founding member, DJ Spinderella, who took to Twitter to express her grievances over how the biopic was handled.
“Sorry but I gotta speak on this Lifetime special. Too often, Black women who have made meaningful contributions in their industry are left out of historical narratives,” Spinderella said in part. “Back when Salt n’ Pepa was building our legacy, which is rooted in empowering women, I could not have dreamed that this same group would one day disempower me.”
She added, “Words cannot fully express my disappointment when I learned a decision was made to move forward with a Lifetime biopic that wrongfully excluded me from every aspect of development and production all the while using my image throughout, given that I played an integral role in the group’s story and success.”
During their co-hosting appearance, Houghton asked Salt and Pepa if they had a response to Spinderella’s claims and if the duo could speak to where they stand regarding their relationship with their former DJ.
“I reached out to Spinderella; I feel like this is very unfortunate,” Salt began. “We’ve come to a crossroads where we have decided to agree to disagree. I definitely am open and Pepa’s open. We’ve talked about it and our hearts are open, [we] have always been open to Spinderella. As far as the public is concerned, I’m really happy about the people who know that they don’t know everything. There’s six sides to every story. We just hope that we can come to some sort of resolution in the future. You never know. You never know what God is doing.”
Pepa provided further clarity on the matter, adding: “I do want to clear up, there is a part that when Spinderella did say we excluded her. That part, Salt and I did reach out to consult with the movie. Like Salt said, this movie was about the friendship of Sandy and Cheryl back in college. But yes, Spinderella joined us, a part of it. We will always acknowledge her contribution that she’s done with us. She will always be our sister. We love her, but we have always made sure that she had the opportunity and the platform. We always encourage her to be Spinderella and be supportive of her, so that is important.”