Sir Mix-A-Lot
Photo: Columbia

It took more than a decade, but booty-obsessed rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot has finally moved from the rear to the front.

The man who made "Baby Got Back" a Grammy-winning dance-floor anthem in 1992 is returning from a self-imposed six-year retirement with a new album, Daddy's Home, and a fresh anatomical rap that should please the females in his audience.

"I had a lot of ladies saying to me, 'You have all these songs about t--ties and asses, but what about us?' " Mix-a-Lot said, explaining "Big Johnson," his new ode to measuring up. The raunchy song about how most men fib about what caliber pistol they're packing was inspired by a heated debate with an old friend.

"I had this massive argument with this woman I've known for a long time about 'Baby Got Back,' " Mix said. "She didn't like it at all, and she said, 'If someone did a song called "Baby Got Di--," would you like it?' I said, 'Yeah, that would be cool.' "

"Big Johnson," with its staccato, techno-inspired rhythms, signals a return to spare beats and sex-obsessed lyrics for the Seattle rapper, who walked away from the biz in 1997. "It felt like it was my time to quit," Mix, 39, explained. "I never wanted to beg to make records, and I started making them to pay bills, and that's not cool."

The author of such strip club classics as "Put 'Em on the Glass" and "My Posse's on Broadway" said he thought the rap business was getting too predictable in the wake of the murders of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. After a pair of disappointing albums, he decided he'd rather quit rapping than try to mold his style to the thugging/bling bling mentality of the late '90s.

"I had checked out bands like Nirvana and it was about people, not who had the biggest necklace and wheels," he said. "Bragging about wheels? I had two Lamborghinis before brothers could even spell it. I was doing that 15 years ago!"

Mix retired to his hometown and set up a home studio and recorded a still-unreleased album with rockers Presidents of the United States of America under the name Subset and began work on a rock/rap mixture that he said nobody has ever attempted before.

"While doing Subset, I found this true hybrid between hip-hop and rock, from drum machines to real drums and guitar to synth that is really unique," he said. "You look at a lot of these cats doing rock-rap now and the problem is a lot of them can't rap."

Though that hybrid sound doesn't appear on Daddy's Home, due in September, the rapper promised fans will hear it on the upcoming debut from the newest member of his posse, rapper Outtasite, as well as from his rock group, Effective Resistance.

Mix, an avowed fan of everything from '70s rock to Soundgarden, does share his love for classic rock on the Home track "Ya'll Don't Know." The biographical trip through the ups and downs of his career employs a fat '70s guitar-rock groove that might have Kid Rock looking over his shoulder. But even though much of his motivation these days comes from dabbling in rock sounds, Mix-a-Lot said it was hip-hop that inspired him to mount a comeback.

"I started to listen to cats like Ludacris, Timbaland, the Neptunes and Missy, and I realized that creativity was coming back [to hip-hop]," he said. "They're getting away from the typical, rehashed R&B [sound] with thug rhymes over the top. I was listening to rap songs that made me want to dance and I thought, 'What a revelation!' I hadn't felt that way in 10 years."

Rather than pack Home with a bunch of big names ("that just looks desperate," he said), Mix went the other way, using only members of his crew for cameos. The exception is a brief rhyme from old pal Humpty Hump of Digital Underground on the P-Funk-inspired groupie song "At the Next Show."

He may not have superstar cameos, but Mix calls out a few major players on songs like "Big Screen" and the album's title track. On the latter, without naming names, he warns, "Baller crowns are earned, never bought/ Nowadays you got cats that will rent a look/ Rent some pimps/ Rent some big-booty girls for your video / But your daddy's home/ And the rent is due."

Calling out wankstas is one thing, but Mix realizes it takes more than disses to get back on top. "Is anyone going to get out of the way for me now? No," he chuckled. "I know I won't sell 5 million on this album, and man, that would scare the sh-- out of me at this point. I'm just making some songs that are about having fun again."

• Sir Mix-A-Lot

In the wake of the L.A. riots that followed the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King, the hip-hop community pulled together to see what it could do to better the lives of disenfranchised youth. One project in the works was a benefit single put together by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh.

"Basically what we're doing is putting together a record and all the proceeds and benefits will go to Pop Warner football and basketball and stuff like that in our community, since a lot of recreational things have been cut out of the neighborhood," DJ Pooh said. "Everybody sort of wrote they own thing. It may be about the Rodney King verdict, or some of it might be things that we need to do to try to put the community back together."

"I wrote about the police," Ice Cube said. "That's where it all comes down. That's what it all boils down to, is the police that's out here acting a fool, and what you have is people sick of the police. Not only blacks, not only Latins, but you got white people sick of the police, too. Pretty soon it goes from the police to the government and that's when you got a revolution on your hands. We protesting an injustice. It's not just Rodney King. It's all kinds of things. Injustices in jobs and everything. That's what we protesting."

Meanwhile, another Los Angeles hardcore rapper, Ice-T, laid down his response to the riots. The MC hooked up with the reggae group Black Uhuru to record a new version of an old song of theirs called "Tip of the Iceberg."

"The song is saying that the problems that you see on the streets now is just the tip of the iceberg," Ice-T explained.

" 'Tip of the Iceberg' is like a message to show the world that if they don't take heed, dangerous things can happen," Black Uhuru's Don Carlos said.

"L.A. could be a real great place if we could get some unity here," Ice-T continued. "And I'm really hoping for that and that the kids don't grow up indoctrinated with that gang thing."

Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot had a #1 hit on his hands back in 1992 with his paean to ample backsides, "Baby Got Back." Here's what he had to say about the track.

" 'Baby Got Back' is a song I did that's about black women," the MC said. "Not necessarily about black women, but about how black women are as opposed to what white America wants them to be. One other video station said 'Baby Got Back' was actually racist 'cause it said the track implies all black women have big butts. But black women are naturally curvy women, and I think if you ask any brother in the house today right now they'll tell you straight up that's what we like, curves. That's what 'Baby Got Back' is all about. But for some reason it's been called sexist. Any time a rapper mentions sex, any time a rapper mentions a body part, nowadays it's like we're under a microscope."

For more "This Week In ...", check out the This Week In Archive

• Ice Cube
• Ice-T
• Sir Mix-A-Lot

Sir Mix-A-Lot
Photo: Columbia

Nostalgia tours don't always have to feature Ringo Starr or hair bands.

More than 20 years after "Rapper's Delight" broke through to radio, hip-hop has its own legends — and nothing befits a legend more than a comeback trek.

A healthy number of the rappers who first brought the genre to radio and video are still touring the country and releasing new music. Here's a rundown of who's doing what and why you should know.

(Tour dates are according to various booking agencies, artists' management and venues.)

Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock
Breakthrough single: "It Takes Two" (1988)
Catchphrase: "Don't cheer me, just hear me out, 'cause I got the clout — shout!"
Famous fashion accessory: Big gold chains, lots of 'em.
Forgettable moment: Cover of Edwin Starr's "War."
Most recent record: Break of Dawn (1994)
Current projects: Unknown.
Tour dates:

10/17 - Harrison, AR @ University of Arkansas

Related Artists

• Tone-Loc
• Run-D.M.C.
• Sir Mix-A-Lot
• Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock
• 2 Live Crew

]]> http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1445924/20010801/tone_loc.jhtml News Article http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1445924/20010801/tone_loc.jhtml 1 Aug 2001 06:51:00 EDT
Quiet Riot 950k Quicktime

In one from the "huh" file, the original members of Quiet Riot joined Sir Mix-A-Lot in a Seattle studio to cut new rock and rap versions of "Cum On Feel The Noize."

The song [950k Quicktime], originally by British 70s glam rock band Slade, was a huge hit for Quiet Riot in 1983.

The man who forged this unlikely union is Sam Perkins, a player with the NBA's Seattle Supersonics, who noticed that Sonics fans would pound the floorboards of Seattle's Key Arena so hard, that players could literally "feel the noise." Perkins, who runs a local production company, set out to make the song the Sonics' 1998 playoff battle cry.

"We're looking forward to it," Quiet Riot frontman Kevin DuBrow said as the band met up with the rapper in the studio. "We've never worked with anybody that's involved with rap music, and Sir Mix-A-Lot obviously has been very successful in that genre, so we're going to find out what that's going to turn out like. We're pretty much stuck on the way that we've been playing it for many years, and it should be interesting to have somebody come in and see what kind of new twist they can put on it... We're pretty malleable. I think that we're talented enough to go in many different directions, but at the same time it'll be interesting to see what kind of new blood can be added to the tune." [540k Quicktime]

Explaining his involvement in the project, Sir Mix-A-Lot said he was drawn in by his allegiance to the Sonics, saying, "I'm a fan. I've been a fan since Spencer Haywood, I mean that's how long I've been a fan. I've always followed the game hardcore."

He added that he was looking forward to the project for more musical reasons too. "It's gonna be interesting," the rapper said. "We're just getting started, so it'll be wild, like clash of the titans over here. I like it though. Music has no color, so let's handle it." The new "Cum On Feel The Noize" single is out on Seattle's Will Records label, with some proceeds going to a local pediatric AIDS charity.

As we went to press Thursday night, the Sonics were down two games to one to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and were facing possible elimination by Minnesota.

By the way, Quiet Riot frontman Kevin DuBrow told MTV News that the original Quiet Riot line-up got back together thanks to Marilyn Manson, who hired the band to play after a show on his last tour. Quiet Riot is now playing some west coast dates.

Related Artists

• Quiet Riot
• Sir Mix-A-Lot

]]> http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1433460/19980430/quiet_riot.jhtml News Article http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1433460/19980430/quiet_riot.jhtml 30 Apr 1998 06:15:00 EDT Sir Mix-A-Lot - Posse on Broadway

Posse on Broadway

• Artist: Sir Mix-A-Lot
• Label: American Recordings
• Album: Swass

]]> Videos http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=16256&vid=157542 http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=16256&vid=157542 19 Jun 2007 12:00:00 EDT