CD Odyssey Disc 1676: Salt N Pepa plus and a third day of Rifflandia

While it may appear I’m cruising for another violation of Rule #2, you would be wrong. Yes this record was released in 1997, but not only is it called Brand New, it is brand new to me., and therefore eligible under Rule #5 for immediate selection. If you want to know how, then read on for details – this is just the teaser, yo.

And following the album review, you’ll get my third day’s worth of Rifflandia recap. Bonus material!

Disc 1676 is…Brand New

Artist: Salt ‘n’ Pepa

Year of Release: 1997

What’s up with the Cover?  The band, representing as twenties gangsters. The Salt n’ Pepa gang traffic in extortion, booze and, of course, rhymes.

How I Came To Know It: This album was not on my radar, but my friend Chris (he who ordered Black’s Magic for me online – see Disc 1635) – knew that I was digging Salt N’ Pepa lately. He saw “Brand New” at a garage sale and bought it for a dollar. Yeah!

How It Stacks Up: I have three Salt N’ Pepa albums and Brand New comes in at…#3. If I had more Salt N’ Pepa albums, I suspect it would be lower. Is this the last shade I shall cast upon Salt N’ Pepa today? Reader, it is not.

Rating: 2 stars but almost 3

There is an all-too-common thread of rap bands formed in the mid to late eighties, where they write four great albums and promptly disband. I don’t know if it is just the sub-set of eighties rap bands that I like, I just know that at some point too early in my exploration, the journey comes to an end.

“Brand New” is Salt N’ Pepa’s fifth album, and while it has some gems, it is already straying into that late nineties sound where the groove takes centre stage, at the expense of the flow and vocal gymnastics. This is in part due to the early nineties sampling laws, which made bands have to pay to cut and splice sounds. This had the unintended consequence of bands paying for fewer samples, but using larger pieces of them.

The result? Instead of getting an artful collection of snippets turned into something brand new, you get fully lifted licks. Example – “Boy Toy” which lifts the entire hook from Rose Royce’s “Ooh Boy” (also lifted by Shaggy three years later for “Luv Me, Luv Me”). It isn’t a crime, and the album has great production, but it doesn’t inspire me to the same level.

While the rhymes aren’t at the same level as previous records “Black’s Magic” and “Very Necessary” “Brand New” has groove to spare. These are songs tailor-made for sitting back in recliner leather seats, and sipping margheritas. It is chill personified and I found myself drifting along. In some cases that groove repeats for a little too long, causing me to get a bit fidgety on the lesser tracks, but overall it is hard to get mad at this record.

As ever, the message from Salt N’ Pepa is a positive one, with a lot of love, forgiveness and self-affirmation. When there are diss tracks, they are mostly retaliatory, where the ladies have been either treated wrong, or spoken to with disrespect, and are stepping up to let everyone know just how much that is not on.

The final song is “Hold On” a mix of rap funk  and spiritual, as Salt N’ Pepa give you a message of hope and a little old time religion to boot.

Overall, while this record isn’t ever going to be my favourite, it has some gems on it. I would have liked it much more if I weren’t so damned mad at the band when I listened to it this week. And on that note…here follows a concert review where you can learn more.

Best tracks: RU Ready, Gitty Up, Brand New

The Concert: Rifflandia at the Park– Victoria, BC, September 16, 2023

Saturday night was the final night at Rifflandia (for me – I skipped Sunday to watch football) and I was excited for the lineup, and in particular, Salt ‘N’ Pepa.

The venue was so close to our house that Sheila and I took advantage of the in/out privileges and came and went a couple times to see who we wanted to see and avoid those we didn’t.

Lindsay Bryan

Folk singer Lindsay Bryan opened the show, with a lovely little set. I get the impression from her banter that Bryan got started young but had been away awhile, but if that was the case it did not affect her performance. She was polished, with a lovely voice that filled the afternoon sunshine like a refreshing breeze.

There weren’t many people around either, so we were able to get up nice and close without fear of the festival jostle that I try to avoid.

After Bryan we checked out the merch table but to our shock and dismay, there was no Salt N Pepa merch. No Lindsay Bryan merch either, so we saved ourselves that cost, and promptly left the venue to avoid the next couple of acts. Let’s do that here as well.

Lovely the Band

Our next show was Lovely the Band, a radio friendly pop outfit from Los Angeles. I thought they were OK and had a good groove going, but I was not moved to seek out their records or anything. A lot of folks in the crowd seemed to know their stuff pretty well, so my guess is they are managing to pay their mortgages without me.

Mavis Staples

I was not looking forward to Mavis Staples, but I couldn’t have been more wrong in my attitude. Staples is 84 years young but showed more energy than all the other bands at the festival so far this weekend. Yes, she had to take a break and sit down once or twice (each time taking a healthy swig out of a tea cup with “Mavis!” written on it. Awesome). But she just came back twice as hard once she was on her feet again.

Not only was Staples a true professional, her set was FUN, it was funky, and I danced like a madman from start to finish.

Matt Maeson and dinner

I’d checked Matt Maeson out earlier on Youtube and was excited to see him live, but when it happened I was underwhelmed. I’m not sure if I wasn’t close enough, or just not motivated enough, but it sounded muddy and disengaged.

We decided this was a good time to seek out some food. At a festival one should always get food and a pee break in halfway through the set of the most popular performer you don’t like.

Once again this was teriyaki, because I already knew I liked it. In the lineup I met a very cool gentlemen with an in-depth knowledge of heavy metal. We had a wonderful conversation in which he consistently out-referenced me but I did not mind at all, and mostly I learned a lot. I recognized about 2/3of the bands he referenced and he could have made a couple of the other ones up without me noticing, but I don’t think he did, as he seemed like a good egg. Also he had the same moustache as me, which pretty much guaranteed he had good taste.

We ate in the stands again as Maeson faded away and some other uninspiring artist took the stage (Chet Faker). And before you know it, it was Salt N Pepa time!

Salt N Pepa

I was pretty stoked to see Salt N Pepa. Sure they had deigned to bring no merch, but I was there for the experience, not to just by a t-shirt and mail it in.

Sadly, Salt N Pepa turned to be there entirely to mail it in. Their set started with a bang, busting out “None of Your Business” to the enthusiastic cheers of the now very large crowd gathering in the gloom.

Following that, a couple more hits where I started to notice just how little they did up on stage. A lot of canned music, and a new DJ since Spinderella is still not back with the band. We miss you, Spinderella.

After about four songs, the ladies left the stage entirely, and turned it over to this new DJ. He proceeded to literally play canned music over the PA. A retrospective of a bunch of mega hits from the eighties and nineties that slowly leached all the joy out of the show.

Not only did he just play a bunch of hits, while occasionally shouting “Victoria!” or some tripe, much of it was of the terrible variety. Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name”? Really?

When this first started, I assumed it was just an intro to some cool freestyle or medley or something, and that Salt N’ Pepa would spring back onto the stage with a triumphant “just kidding!” moment. After three or four songs it became clear this was the show. And worse, it went on for a good 20 minutes. As one of friends remarked, it was like listening to a bad wedding DJ.

After what felt like forever (and just before I was going to just leave and go home) Salt N’ Pepa returned as if they had not just essentially given the entire audience the middle finger, sang a few more songs (all hits I think – I was pretty disengaged at this point) and were gone. I can’t remember the playlist, but if you were looking for deep cuts, or anything to suggest you might have, you know, heard their records, you can forget it.

The total experience landed somewhere between bored and dismissive. I left thankful they had brought no merch, since give the quality of the show I would have turned their concert tee into a rag for polishing my car. In time, I’ll get back to remembering how much I love Salt N’ Pepa’s discography, once their lackluster live show is sufficiently forgotten. It can’t happen soon enough.

Diplo

We then left before Diplo came on. Diplo? Dip-no. At least for me.

Despite the bummer end to the weekend festivities, it was still a fun day, where I met a lot of nice partygoer types, some of them friends and some total strangers. I got to people watch all kinds of interesting people and got to be one of the people watched as well. I would definitely do Rifflandia again, but next time I’ll time getting my teriyaki for the Salt N Pepa set.