Shoop Indeed.
During the "What's Trending" segment Wednesday on the Chris Stigall show on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, producer Michael Cerio told Chris and I about a new concert tour coming to the BB&T Pavilion (formerly the Susquehanna Bank Center) on the waterfront in Camden, New Jersey. The nostalgic and inaugural "I Love The '90s Tour" will feature 90's hip-hop and R&B stars Vanilla Ice, Coolio, Kid 'N Play and Salt-N-Pepa…. 'Spinderella cut it up one time'. Other artists include Color Me Badd, All-4-One and Young MC.
My brain was digging deep into the memory files to pull out songs from each of these artists, of course though I had no problem with Salt-N-Pepa. S-N-the-P helped many ladies, including myself, to become rhyming, rapping fools with hits like "Shoop", "Whatta Man" and "Let's Talk About Sex". They even were featured in a recent Geico television ad with their song "Push It".
I'm still amazed at how the words just flow when I hear "Shoop". Sing along now- '…Ummm, you're packed and you're stacked 'specially in the back. Brother, wanna thank your mother for a butt like that. Can I get some fries with that shake-shake boobie, if looks would kill, you would be an uzi. You're a shot gun- bang, what's up with that thang, I wanna know, how does it hang? Straight up, wait up, hold up, Mr. Lover, like Prince said you're a sexy mutha….' You get the idea. Classic.
I know that plenty of ladies have their own stories of how "Shoop" might have came to be in their repertoire, for me, I was a music DJ at 107.3 KISS FM in 1993 and I played the crap out of "Shoop". Salt-N-Pepa along with R. Kelly came in concert. I was fortunate to go backstage, along with a listener, and meet these ladies who influenced my rhyming ways. I still remember how sweet Spinderella was in person! Months later, KISS FM was going to change from pop music to a more alternative music sound. So we did what was called a radio stunt, and played "Shoop" on a loop for 24 hours straight. Listeners called in and even came by the station (we darkened the windows to make it look like no one was there). By the end, I had about all the "Shoop" I could take.
It was a different time, not only for me professionally in my career, but hairstyle, choice of clothes and shoes (did I really wear socks with Birkenstocks?), friends and men….wow. And now it's all back. Makes me wanna Shoop, Shoop ba-doop.
"I Love the '90s Tour" plays the BB&T Pavilion on Saturday, August 6th. Tickets are on sale now through livenation.com.
