Sir Mix-A-Lot is Back

Sir Mix-A-Lot
Sir Mix-A-Lot

If you are wondering whether Sir Mix-A-Lot will be playing some of his hits when he comes to town — like “Posse on Broadway” or “Baby Got Back” — the answer is a resounding “Hell yes.”

“I’m not ashamed of any of my tracks,” he says. “I had fun with them, so not only am I going to show up and play them, but I’m not going to play a little two-minute medley of those songs and try to force-feed somebody some new stuff. I hate that! As a fan, there’s nothing I hate more than when an artist doesn’t realize that the consumer is the boss, not your record label. If you don’t please them, you don’t please anybody.”

For those who were too young to hear “Baby Got Back” in its heyday, the 1992 hit single from Mack Daddy nabbed Mix-A-Lot a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance and placed him on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks. The music video was even banned temporarily from MTV (when the station still played music videos) for its racy content (i.e. lots of derrieres). And for all you pre-Millennials, there’s no forgetting that opening line: “Oh. My. God. Becky, look at her butt. It’s so big.”

Mix-A-Lot has had a lot of time to learn about pleasing others. With the rise of social media and DIY artists, he has seen how the face of the music industry has evolved, and so he has evolved with it. In addition to making music — he says his long-awaited album Dun 4got About Mix will likely drop in 2014 — he started up an electronics business, and this proved to be essential in helping him learn how to connect with his “bosses” more effectively.

“That forced me to have to connect with the potential buyer,” he says. “I had to understand what they liked, what they wanted. I learned how to translate that over to music and not just beat fans over the head and say, ‘Buy my next record! Buy my next record!’ You have to talk to them on their level.”

Sir Mix-A-Lot performs 9 pm Friday, Dec. 6, at Whiskey River Ranch; $10-$50.