--- description: Lupita Nyongo brought the heat when she gave a scorchingly hot performance of Salt-N-Pepa's "Whatta Man" during Lip Sync battle. title: Watch Lupita Nyong'o Cover Salt-N-Pepa's "Whatta Man" image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch Lupita Nyong'o Slay Salt-N-Pepa's 'Whatta Man' Surrounded by Firefighters  by [Cady Lang](/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 3, 2016 5:59 PM CUT  by [Cady Lang](/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 3, 2016 5:59 PM CUT [Lupita Nyong’o ](http://time.com/4504569/lupita-nyongo-jay-z-song/ "undefined")brought the house down during an appearance on _Lip Sync Battle_, where she took on Regina Hall’s impression of [The Weeknd’s “Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)”](http://time.com/3645558/the-weeknd-50-shades-of-grey-soundtrack-song/ "undefined") with a steamy homage to Salt-N-Pepa’s classic, “Whatta Man.” The Oscar winner pulled out all the stops as she enlisted a girl gang and shirtless firemen to back up her undeniably impressive dance moves and perfect lip-syncing. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Nyong’o is a triple threat — we already saw her show off her skills when [she dropped a hot sixteen as her rap alter ego “Troublemaker” in September.](http://time.com/4508134/lupita-nyongo-rap/ "undefined") It looks like Salt-N-Pepa is having a moment as well — between [Queen Bey, Blue Ivy, and Tina Knowles-Lawson dressing up as them for Halloween](http://time.com/4551352/beyonce-blue-ivy-tina-knowles-salt-n-pepa-halloween-costume/ "undefined") and Lupita bringing back “Whatta Man,” this is their week for throwbacks. Watch Lupita’s full performance below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4556483/lupita-nyongo-lip-sync-battle-whatta-man/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4556483/lupita-nyongo-lip-sync-battle-whatta-man/"},"headline":"Watch Lupita Nyong'o Slay Salt-N-Pepa's 'Whatta Man' Surrounded by Firefighters","datePublished":"2016-11-03T17:59:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:22.442Z","description":"The Oscar winner gave a Lip Sync Battle performance","url":"https://time.com/4556483/lupita-nyongo-lip-sync-battle-whatta-man/","keywords":["Newsfeed","entertainment","Lupita Nyong'o","celebrity","Culture","lip sync battle"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4556483/lupita-nyongo-lip-sync-battle-whatta-man/","name":"Watch Lupita Nyong'o Slay Salt-N-Pepa's 'Whatta Man' Surrounded by Firefighters"}}]}] ```