The Delete BinSalt-N-Pepa and En Vogue Perform “Whatta Man”
Listen to this track by well-seasoned rap titans Salt-N-Pepa as aligned to divine soul torch bearers En Vogue. It’s “Whatta Man”, a smash single from late 1993 that scored a number three showing on the Billboard Top 100 by the following year, garnering them certified platinum status and a Grammy nomination. The song appears on their era-defining Very Necessary record. En Vogue released the song earlier than Salt-N-Pepa in September of the same year, including it on their Runaway Love EP that followed up their 1992 smash hit record Funky Divas. Needless to say, the song was a soaring success between the two influential groups.
What a lot of music fans at the time didn’t know was that “Whatta Man” had an older pedigree in pop music history. Soul singer Linda Lyndell recorded the original song written by Dave Crawford that bears the title “What a Man” in July of 1968. It came out on the Stax label where it peaked at number 50 on the R&B charts that year. Even before she recorded the song, Lyndell had the chops to open for both James Brown and Ike & Tina. But her career was derailed when she was threatened by white supremacists. They didn’t approve of a white woman being on stage with Black musicians and recording Black music for a mixed audience.
Even with this grim turn of events as an unfortunate part of the song’s history, the story of “What a Man” wasn’t over. By the early 1990s, singles from the Stax catalogue were released as boxsets and ready for a new generation to discover them. Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue brought Lyndell’s song out of its obscure Sixties past and placed it seamlessly into the Nineties mainstream. To do that, they recontextualized the song completely. The obvious change was that it became a rap song that sampled the rhythmic groove of the original with En Vogue delivering its central vocal hook. Salt-N-Pepa’s rap also changed it thematically as well. In their hands, “Whatta Man” became a life-affirming anthem in praise of Black manhood and identity from a Black woman’s point of view. So on that level alone: fuck you, white supremacists.
The song retains its ties to the Sixties soul original and with the Stax sound perfectly preserved alongside the rhythm and pulse of Nineties hip hop and R&B. The signature sampled funky Memphis guitar that keeps it rooted in Southern soil is supplemented by call-and-response dynamics to make this not only one of the sexiest songs on the radio in the Nineties and perhaps for all time, but also one that is full of the lifeforce and of supreme positivity in general. It certainly helped that everyone involved on this cut is at the peak of their powers.
As for the aforementioned recontextualized original song, “Whatta Man” pulls no punches as to what it’s about. En Vogue’s amazing push-pull melodic interjections counterbalances Salt-N-Pepa’s flow in a song in praise of a good man who knows what his responsibilities are as they naturally flow out of his strength of character and strong sense of self. The song presents these central traits as the antithesis for male posturing, false mythologies around manhood, and the delusions that support them.
There is a sexual dimension in the lyrics related to this, with some spicy lines in there which evoke some pretty upfront eroticism. But even this is in resistance to the myth of manhood as it pertains to sex as an act of conquest. Instead, “Whatta Man” reinforces the vitality of women talking about good sex in terms of personal ownership and as something they deserve as active participants and not as objects of domination. There is a high defiance quotient in this tune along these lines from the group that made talking about sex a top item on the cultural agenda and pertinent to issues of women’s health, too. But overall, the sexual dimension in this song is a part of a wider continuum that makes a lover’s prowess an extension of a defining value: attentiveness.
Spends quality time with his kids when he can
Secure in his manhood ’cause he’s a real man
A lover and a fighter and he’ll knock a knucker out
Don’t take him for a sucker ’cause that’s not what he’s about
Every time I need him, he always got my back
Never disrespectful ’cause his mama taught him that.
~ “Whatta Man” by Salt ‘N’ Pepa and En Vogue
If the man knows a thing or two about how to satisfy a woman in bed, he also knows other ways in which he can be attentive and support her needs in other areas, too. If he shows respect for her and defends her when necessary, it’s because he was open to learning lessons from the women in his life that instilled those values. This is another powerful statement in defiance against the idea that real men must live in a world separate from the world of women, only visiting their world when on the hunt. Here, engaging with and learning from women is a source of strength and great pride as a defining character trait. It’s certainly an essential element to how a well-adjusted man behaves in his relationships with women.
As much of a hip-shaker as this song was, and remains to be, “Whatta Man” had incredible impact as a social statement. It praises manhood as it should be. But it also resists a strain of male toxicity pertinent to its era and that unfortunately endures today. The many tired and also destructive tropes that keep men in states of arrested development mentioned in this song are still hanging around. Women in relationships with insecure and emotionally underdeveloped men carry unnecessary and unequal burdens. In too many cases, relationships like this actually put women in danger.
An important takeaway here is that “Whatta Man” was not and is not aimed at men to inspire them to be better. It was made by and for women, and specifically Black women, in support of what they deserve from the men in their lives. How we manage our emotions, insecurities, and means to express ourselves as men independent of that has always been our job to manage and become better at.
If we’re looking to live up to the masculine value of self-sufficiency and strength, maybe this is good place for us all to start digging if we haven’t already started.
Salt-N-Pepa are an active group today between the two principal creative heads. You can catch up to them at saltnpepa.com.
To delve into the history of En Vogue and to learn about upcoming shows and releases, you’d do well to consider a visit to envoguemusic.com.
As a post-script to the story of original “What a Man” artist Linda Lyndell, and thanks in part to the cultural impact of “Whatta Man”, she returned to music in the early 2000s. You can read the story about her return right here. Also, before it gets missed, be sure to listen to Linda Lyndell’s “What a Man”.
And to serve as a post-post script: fuck you again and forevermore, white supremacists.
Enjoy!
#60sSoul #90sMusic #EnVogue #Feminism #hipHop #rap #SaltNPepa
Brian Jopek
majiming
Belinda Montgomery