Legendary rap group Salt-N-Pepa opened up about boycotting the 1989 Grammys.
While having a conversation with Will Smith on his new podcast Class of ‘88, they were speaking on celebrating 50 years of hip-hop, which led them to speak on what it is today and reflect on what happened during the 1989 boycott.
“As women, we didn’t win any awards at that time at all,” Pepa said. “And as a male-dominated field and taking a chance, we didn’t even know if the Grammys is going to say, ‘You know what? You went against us. You never gon’ be seen.’ But they listened.”
Salt said that that moment was the start of something “very important for women in their position,” and believes that them taking a stand was the reason why their 1995 win was eventually televised.
“We had no idea that it would actually make an impact for change,” she said. Smith’s podcast Class of ‘88 will air all eight episodes on October 26th through Amazon Music and Audible. Various guests will be on the show including Queen Latifah, Fab 5 Freddy, Kool DJ Red Alert, Chuck D., J.J. Fad, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Rakim, and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels.
Watch a clip from their episode below.