Two-Thirds of Salt-N-Pepa Perform for Russell Simmons

Salt-N-Pepa were certainly something to marvel at in their heyday, as they were one of the first all-female rap crews to make it big. Many of us have memories of singing and rapping their songs like “Shoop” and “Whatta Man” in junior high, but that only made me a little bit more sad to see the pictures of Cheryl James (aka “Salt”) and Sandra Denton (aka “Pepa”) performing this week at Russell Simmons’ 13^th annual Art for Life East Hampton Benefit in New York.

I involuntarily winced and knitted my eyebrows together just looking at pictures of the two women performing, so I can only image what it must have been like for those in attendance at the benefit. The third member of the former group, Deidra Roper (aka “DJ Spinderella”) decided to sit the performance out. Probably a very wise move.

In attendance were celebrities ranging from the newest American Idol judge Mariah Carrey and her husband, Nick Cannon, to former The View host Star Jones.

Denton, 47, and James, 46 took the stage together and tried to relive the past by busting out some super sexy moves (that aren’t so sexy when you’re in your forties and clearly haven’t practiced them in the past two decades) and donning age-inappropriate attire.

James wore tight black leather pants and a loose silver top that hung in front to disguise any weight gained since her last performance as Salt. Denton was easily the more outgoing of the two and proudly strutted around in tight black top left open to expose her black sparkly bra, paired with itsy-bitsy sparkly black hot pants and tacky silver sparkly high heels.

One image captured from the performance show the pair doing a simultaneous high leg kick, with James clearly not as flexible as she used to be, and Denton grabbing herself inappropriately for no clear reason. Did she pull a muscle?

Another set of pictures depict Denton dancing around Simmons, trying to be provocative – and it may have worked if he likes women with bigger biceps than his own. I have to wonder what was really going through Simmons’ mind at that time.

Salt-N-Pepa have regrouped to perform a number of time since the group broke up in 2001. They performed in 2004 at VH1’s Hip Hop Honors, they were given their own reality show on VH1 in 2007 called The Salt-N-Pepa Show, and they performed in 2008 at the BET Hip Hop Awards. James and Denton made another performance as just a duo last year on the Australian version of the X Factor alongside finalist Johnny Ruffo.