Salt-N-Pepa’s first album Hot, Cool & Vicious went platinum, a first for female rappers. Salt-N-Pepa went on to become the most successful women hip hop artists to date. By the late Eighties, hip hop was on its way to becoming a male-dominated art form, which is what made the emergence of Salt-N-Pepa so significant. As an all-female rap crew (even their DJs, including Dee Dee “Spinderella” Roper, were women), the group broke down doors for women in hip hop. They were also among the first rap artists to cross over into the pop mainstream, laying the groundwork for the genre’s widespread acceptance in the early 1990s.