Sir Mix-A-Lot Artistfacts

August 12, 1963
Sir Mix-a-Lot is overwhelmingly known for his 1992 #1 hit "Baby Got Back," but he was already a Platinum-selling rapper by that point with a huge following in the Seattle area, where he's from. His debut album, Swass, was released in 1988 and earned the Platinum certification in 1990 for selling over a million copies in America.
His real name is Anthony Ray. He's a DJ and producer as well as a rapper; the name Sir Mix-A-Lot is a nod to his talent for mixing all kinds of sounds from various drum machines, synthesizers and samplers.
He's from Seattle, which was far better known for grunge than hip-hop when he was coming up in the late '80s and early '90s. He was the first rapper from the area to become famous; there wasn't another until Macklemore emerged in 2012 with "Can't Hold Us."
Sir Mix-a-Lot was one of the first rappers to collaborate with rock bands. On his 1988 debut album, Swass, he teamed with the band Metal Church for a reworking of "Iron Man"; in 1993 he collaborated with the band Mudhoney (also from Seattle) for the song "Freak Momma," which appears on the soundtrack to the movie Judgment Night.
When the Experience Music Project opened in Seattle in 2000, Sir Mix-a-Lot's mixer was on display, honoring his contribution to the city's music scene. Over the years, he's been a part of various exhibits at the museum, which has since been renamed the Museum of Pop Culture.
His early songs he made in a studio tucked into his apartment in Rainier Beach in Seatle using an 8-track recorder, an Oberheim DMX drum machine, a Roland Juno 2 synthesizer, an Akai 612 sampler and an Apple computer. When he'd complete a song, he'd put it to tape and give it a road test, blasting it from his Cadillac Coupe de Ville (his hooptie) while driving around town. "There are very few outlets for hip-hop in Seattle," he explained in 1986. "So if I can't get airplay I just go out into the street to find out if it's good or not."
He released his first two albums on his own label, Nastymix, and in 1991 signed with Rick Rubin's Def American Recordings. In 1994, when Rubin changed the label name to American Recordings, he held a funeral for the word "def" that Sir Mix-a-Lot attended along with about 1500 other people. "You got all the big boys in the record business out here for a burial of three letters," he said at the event. "I'm trippin'. I hope this many people come when I'm out of here."
The 2005 Pussycat Dolls hit "Don't Cha" interpolates his 1988 song "Swass," which goes:

Don't you wish your boyfriend was swass like me

Sir Mix-a-Lot is listed as a writer on that song.
"Baby Got Back" is a Golden Goose for Sir Mix-a-Lot; he says the song has earned him over $100 million dollars. That allows him to work if and when he wants to.

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