Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Let's Talk About Sex

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B-side
  
Remix

Recorded
  
1990

Released
  
August 6, 1991

Length
  
3:33

Format
  
7" single, CD single, CD maxi, audio cassette

Genre
  
Hip house, dance, pop rap

"Let's Talk About Sex" is a song by American hip-hop trio Salt-n-Pepa. It was released in August 1991 as a single from their Blacks' Magic album, and achieved great success in many countries, including Australia, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland where it was a number-one hit.

Contents

Content

The song talks about safe sex, the positive and negative sides of sex and the censorship that sex had around that time in American mainstream media. The song was later included in the trio's Greatest Hits (2000) album. It samples "I'll Take You There" by the Staple Singers. An alternate version of the song entitled "Let's Talk About AIDS" was released to radio on a promotional single and included as a b-side on various singles for the song. The lyrics were changed to more directly address the spread of AIDS and HIV.

Music video

The music video for "Let's Talk About Sex" directed by Millicent Shelton starts in a black-and-white scene with a girl turning on a radio and listening to the song. Then she starts kissing her boyfriend and scenes of Salt-n-Pepa and other couples kissing and hugging are shown. Next the video colorizes when Salt-n-Pepa are shown dancing. Another version of the video has a scene in which a skeleton is shown after the word 'AIDS' with a stamp saying 'censored' in its mouth.

Cover versions

  • German singer/band leader Max Raabe and Palast Orchester covered in cabaret/big band style for his 2001 album Super Hits.
  • The chorus was sampled in Pretty Ricky's 2006 single, "On the Hotline".
  • The song was featured in the riff-off scene in the 2012 film Pitch Perfect.
  • The EDM groups Cheat Codes and Kris Kross Amsterdam re-use the song's chorus in their 2016 single, "Sex". This song, however, takes a more pro-sex R&B approach to the theme than the original, with new verses and dance-focused production.

    • Chart performances and awards

    The song was certified gold by the RIAA and peaked at No. 13 at the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the purely sales-based UK Singles Chart, the song hit No. 2, and in the German singles chart, the song hit No. 1, the first original song by an American hip-hop act to achieve that feat. It also hit No. 1 in the Australian ARIA Singles Chart.

    In 1992, the song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

    Track listings

    7" Single
    1. "Let's Talk About Sex!" (True Confessions Edit) — 3:32
    2. "Let's Talk About Sex!" (Super Crispy Mix) - 4:39
    CD Maxi
    1. "Let's Talk About Sex!" (True Confessions Edit) — 3:32
    2. "Let's Talk About Sex!" (Original Recipe Mix) — 4:42
    3. "Let's Talk About Sex!" (Super Crispy Mix) — 4:39
    4. "Do You Want Me" (Techno Philly Mix) — 6:31

    References

    Let's Talk About Sex Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA