Hot, Cool & Vicious

One of the first albums to challenge hip-hop's machocratic sovereignty, Salt-N-Pepa's Hot, Cool & Vicious takes as its musical model Run-D.M.C.'s potent distillation of streetwise repartee, hard-ass bluster and beatbox rhythms. Determined to say it loud and say it proud, r-r-r-rappers Cheryl "Salt" James and Sandy "Pepa" Denton wield their womanhood like an urban-jungle machete, busting unfaithful lovers in "Chick on the Side," threatening female competitors "just for spite" in "I'll Take Your Man," dishing distaff disses at Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick in "The Showstopper," and condemning mindless male promiscuity in "Tramp." With its aerobic BPMs and synth-pop hook, the Top 20 hit "Push It" is the album's most obvious--and most effective--bid for dancefloor immortality. --Greg Siegel