[Music] foreign
little did Anthony Ray know better known by his stage name Sir Mix-A-Lot that his song
about his love for Bodacious backsides would not only become a double Platinum hit but
changed his life forever the Auburn Washington born rapper songwriter and record producer grew
up in Seattle's Central District life in the city during the 70s wasn't easy widespread unemployment
and a tanking economy led to sky-high food prices and Rising rates of people deciding
to take their own lives the streets owned by gangs and pimps could have had an unfortunate
influence on young Sir Mix-A-Lot but his mother made sure that wasn't going to happen on her watch
as a child he was a fan of Prince Michael Jackson and his personal favorite James Brown but listen
to a wide variety of musical genres including rock and heavy metal he also began to develop a
love of the growing new genre of hip-hop early on mix had an ear and a passion for music that
eventually led him to begin rhyming in the early 80s soon after high school he began DJing parties
at local community centers mix then ended up playing weekends regularly at a local Boys and
Girls Club in South Seattle after moving over to one of the organization's other locations
mix met local DJ Nasty Nez Rodriguez mix along with nastiness and a local businessman would go
on to found the nasty mix record label on which mix would release his first professional body
of work the track square dance rap would be his first song to experience any popularity outside
of Seattle after it was picked up by DJs and clubs Nationwide mix went on a cross-country tour one
particular experience he had while on the road would serve as the inspiration to write his next
hit Posse On Broadway released in 1987 the song would be his first to make it on the Billboard
Hot 100 and got a lot of love in the Seattle area for its references to many local landmarks
the song Eventually sold over a million copies and went platinum yet nobody was talking about
this new up-and-coming rapper named Sir Mix-A-Lot the reason why could possibly be blamed on timing
the top mainstream albums at the time were from Madonna George Michael guns and roses and Michael
Jackson so clearly there was a lot going on swas Sir mix-a-lot's debut album featuring both songs
was released the following year his follow-up album titled seminar came just one year after that
featuring The Singles my hoopti beepers and I got game none of the tracks had any success in the pop
world but did do moderately well on the Rapture then three years would go by before mix put out
another album during this time he experienced some Financial ugliness with with his label yes
the one he founded which landed him in court when it was all said and done he had no choice but to
leave after signing to the deaf American label mix finally dropped his third album titled Mack
Daddy in 1992. the Project's second single called Baby Got Back would become sir mix-a-lot's biggest
hit ever reaching the top spot on the Hot 100 go double Platinum win a Grammy award for best
rap solo performance and take the title of the second best-selling song of the year behind boys
to men's end of the road though it wasn't without controversy complaints of sexism and racism
plagued the artist and the music video featuring raunchy dance moves and skin-tight clothing was
only shown on MTV after 9 pm years later mix would reveal that the idea came to him to write the song
while on a music video shoot I remember a director asked me what kind of girls I wanted for the video
I said Kirby so he got in this debate with me about what beautiful is that's when I said that
I wanted to do a song about this from a little different perspective I still wanted to make
it fun and sexy but at the same time I wanted to let the world know that we think these women are
beautiful not just objects contrary to what some people have mistakenly thought was the type of
woman he was referring to in the song mix made it clear in his 2011 interview with the village boys
who it's about and who it's not I've seen girls that look like me and been like oh I'm babies got
back and I'm like no no no no no it wasn't baby got back and center and middle and front you know
if somebody asked me what I had in mind when I did it it would definitely be someone like
Shakira JLo at her Peak that is exactly what I'm talking about the coke bottle in 1994 he released
Chief boot Naka as understandably difficult as it would be to duplicate the success a baby got back
the album did manage to squeeze out some success with the single put him on the glass another track
just a pimp it in me would also give mix another Grammy Award nomination not surprisingly though
when his 1996 album Return of the bumpasaurus put up abysmal sales numbers Sir Mix-A-Lot left
deaf American nothing more was heard from mix until 2003 when he released his last album today
Daddy's home in June 2014 mix collaborated and performed with the Seattle Symphony as part of
their series of new orchestral pieces inspired by Seattle's music icons today the YouTube video
of the performance has racked up over 12 million views also that year rapper Nicki Minaj released
the single Anaconda which prominently features samples from Baby Got Back mix took to Twitter
right after the release of the music video which he watched 37 times to praise Nikki on
a job well done around this time mix also did a sit-down interview with Vlad TV revealing that
the Timeless classic has easily made over 100 million dollars to anyone who thinks he
fell off after the hype of the song died down they couldn't be more wrong over the years mix
became a pretty Savvy businessman and ensured that through writing nearly all of his music as well as
securing his publishing he would never be hurting for money a couple of years later the song once
again got some extra social media attention when actress Blake Lively posted a picture of herself
at Cairns captioned with the Baby Got Back lyrics La face with an Oakland booty a lot of people were
heated about it but not mix he actually came to her defense saying that the song wasn't about
a race battle but about celebrating curves mix says us that his ego has never been what drives
him nor has the idea of gaining street cred he's really just a hard-working guy who's always tried
to have a good career today Sir Mix-A-Lot still has a lot going on he tours regularly goes out
for Chinese food and spends a crazy amount of time in the studio he also keeps a strong
connection to his roots by continuing to maintain a residence in his hometown of Auburn Washington