"I'm sure they asked me for permission on my royalty statement, but I don't go over every little thing, so I was completely surprised."
The funny thing is, James adds, the song was thrown together quickly because they needed a B-side to Tramp. "Pep and I didn't even like it. We thought it was corny. We did the vocals at someone's house in Brooklyn. We were all tight up in this little teeny bathroom doing Push It. So we were really surprised when it turned out to be our signature song."
It won't, of course, be the only hit they perform. There's also Shake Your Thang, Let's Talk About Sex and Whatta Man - all iconic songs that helped Salt N Pepa pioneer a new era in rap.
But it wasn't without its struggles, as James explains: "Hip-hop is very misogynistic, it's very aggressive. It isn't the kind of music that women can easily infiltrate and succeed in. You have to have something so unique and special to get past that barrier."
She believes it's even harder now: "There were a lot more artists to choose from when I was coming up, you know Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill. There aren't that many now and that's probably because it's even more misogynistic and more testosterone-driven." Salt N Pepa, at Auckland's ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, on Friday, November 15.