The result was “Desirable Revenge (The Saga of Sweet Pussy Pauline).” “Somehow we recorded it, and I sent a copy to Junior Vasquez,” Candy J said. “I was in New York for the music conference they had every year, and it was playing. And I said, ‘Oh my God, that sounds like me, OH MY GOD! At that time I was doing more Top 40-type music. But my friend told me, ‘What you need to do is put on a blonde wig and some dark sunglasses, and go make that money!’ Junior Vasquez paid me $6,000 to perform that song at his club and nowhere else for three months – and not to give a copy to Tony Humphries. That was his primary request. I didn’t know about the politics behind the music back then.” Sweet Pussy Pauline was an instant hit, but Candy J was still pursuing a mainstream singing career. “I would go up onstage and sing my songs and people would be like, ‘OK, OK that was cute, now bring out the dirty talk.’ I started to feel like, ‘Do they want the music act or the comedy?’ I never considered myself a comedian, but Sweet Pussy Pauline took on a life of her own.”

Success led her away from Chicago to New York, where she says audiences embraced her more. “People probably don’t know I was the first person MC Lyte ever opened up for. I performed at Paradise Garage. I went in there and all I saw was just a big black club, and I thought, ‘I’m not that popular, why am I performing here?’ They paid me $3,000, and I said, ‘Cash?’ It was a scene. It was the first time I saw a performer get booed onstage. I turned to my manager and he said, ‘Do your show, Candy, just do your show.’ So I went out there and just started talking, and everyone started laughing.