Music / Sir Mix-A-Lot

It's what he likes.

"She's…she's beautiful! Little in the middle, but with an ample derrière!' his anaconda whispers (by the way, I'm picturing his dick as a sock puppet). 'What a vision!' anaconda cries. 'An LA face, as well as an Oakland booty! We must compose a ballad about this gorgeous creature! Quickly, Sir Mix-a-Lot! Grab a pen!"

— DListed

Anthony Ray (born August 12, 1963), better known by his stage name Sir Mix-a-Lot, is a rapper, record producer and electronics store owner. Repping for Seattle, Washington (he was Seattle's only mainstream rapper until Macklemore came along), Mix-A-Lot is notable for rapping about non-violent subjects in the midst of the rise of violent, gritty gangsta rap. He had several underground hits in the late 80s and early 90s before achieving worldwide fame from his lone 1992 hit "Baby Got Back," the stuffy old song about the buttocks.

He also was the narrator in the very short-lived The Watcher, a show in UPN's inaugural season.

"I like big tropes and I cannot lie!":

• 555: Notably averted in "Baby Got Back". 1-900-Mix-a-Lot, or 1-900-649-2568, has been a legally-dialable number in the North American Number Plan at various points in history. At one point, it actually redirected to Sir Mix-a-Lot's personal line (though toll-free outside applicable long distance charges). But as of 2023, it is currently inactive.
  • The music video and radio edit censor the 1-900 with a dial tone and phone button press tones.
• The Alleged Car: "My Hooptie" from Seminar.
  Gotta roll this bucket cuz my Benz is in the shop!
• Berserk Button: In "Swap Meet Louie," he snaps, understandably, when he finds that people are selling bootlegged music amidst all the Shoddy Knock Off Products.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: The infamous "anaconda" line from that one song (three guesses and the first two don't count). Notably sampled for Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda".
• Big "OMG!": At the very beginning of "Baby Got Back".
  Oh... my... GOD... Becky!
  Look at her butt! It is so big!
  She looks like one of those rap guy's girlfriends!
• Body Motifs: Guess what "Baby Got Back" is about.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: A famous interpretation of "Baby Got Back": love for the feminine rotund posterior makes a person incapable of lying.
  • In his Adam Westing appearance in BoJack Horseman, he proclaimed that he was picked as a judge on "Felicity Huffman's Booty Academy" because of this trope, not the other one.
• Chubby Chaser: Well, he doesn't like little butts...
  36-24-36? Ha! Only if she's 5'3"...
• Clip Show: A version of "Baby Got Back" made up of 295 movie clips.
• Cluster F-Bomb: "Seattle Ain't Bullshittin'", a shockingly profane track.
• Cool Car:
  • The Mercedes-Benz in "Posse on Broadway"
  • "Testarossa"
• Cool Shades
• Dance Sensation: "Square Dance Rap"
• Drugs Are Bad:
  • From "Posse on Broadway":
  "Wheelin' 23rd we saw nuthin' but thugs
  The girlies was too skinny from smokin' all them drugs
  Cause the rock man got 'em and their butts just dropped
  The freaks looked depressed 'cause the Benz won't stop"
  • "I'm Your New God," which is about and rapped from the perspective of cocaine, qualifies as well.
• Genre Mashup: Joined the Seattle Symphony to rap over orchestral arrangements of his greatest hits in 2014.
• Heavy Meta: "A Rapper's Reputation"
• Hidden Depths: It should be noted that Mix has actually done quite a few conscious rap songs
• Impossible Hourglass Figure / Hartman Hips: "Little in the middle but she got much back!"
• Intercourse with You: "Baby Got Back," "Put 'Em on the Glass," "Ride"
• "King Kong" Climb: The Swass album cover shows Mix-A-Lot and two of his posse as giants perched atop Seattle buildings.
• Large Ham: "Baby Got Back" is very over-the-top.
• Listing Cities: "Jump On It" lists the cities Mix-A-Lot has been to and the adventures he's had there.
• Male Gaze: "Baby Got Back". Even the Trope Image explains the content of the song.
• Old-School Chivalry: From "Posse On Broadway":
  "Kid Sensation dropped a twenty, and didn't even miss it
  Skeezer from another hood, she picked it up and kissed it
  Her puppy's illin', he went to slap her face
  But my homey P.O.B. cold sprayed the boy with mace
  Cuz I never liked a punk who beat up on his girl..."
• Out-of-Genre Experience: He referenced the Green River Killer in one of his songs.
• Protest Song:
  • "National Anthem"
  • Anti-Police Song: "One Time's Got No Case"
  • Intimidating Revenue Service: "Take My Stash"
  • Amazingly, "Baby Got Back" is one against unrealistic, often racist, societal beauty standards, as well as against misogyny and domestic violence.
• Rearrange the Song: A reworking of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" with the band Metal Church.
• Rick Rubin: Produced Mix-A-Lot's breakthrough album Monster Mack and encouraged him to play up his pimp-like image.
• Sampling
  • "Baby Got Back" samples an obscure 80s techno song "Technicolor" by Channel One. And also briefly samples the infamous Vietnamese prostitute from Full Metal Jacket.
  • "One Time's Got No Case" samples the hook from Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothing."
• Seattle: His hometown. He regularly references it.
• Shout-Out: Aside from the usual status symbols...
  • In "Posse On Broadway" the crew ends up at Dick's, a legendary Seattle burger joint. (The Taco Bell was closed.)
    • Also from "Posse on Broadway"
  "I'm the man they Love to Hate, the J.R. Ewing of Seattle"
  • In "Baby Got Back", a nod to Florence Griffith-Joyner.
  • The brief mention of "36"-24"-36"" is a nod to the similarly-themed funk classic "Brick House".
  • Jergens is namechecked in "Put 'Em On The Glass".
• Sir Verb-a-Lot
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Appropriately enough. Anytime he appears on a segment for a VH1 show, such as I Love the Exties, expect him to get bleeped at least once.
• Strange Stage: The "Baby Got Back" video features, for obvious reasons, an enormous butt that is used as a stage, both by Sir Mix A Lot himself and several back up dancers.
• Stuffy Old Songs About the Buttocks: Take a guess. The song is indirectly the Trope Namer, as it was referred to by the trope title in an episode of Futurama.
• Take That!: Many in "Baby Got Back", all whom had enabled a very narrow and slim vision of beauty in the early 90s:
  • "I ain't talkin' bout Playboy, cuz silicone parts are made for toys."
  • "Fonda ain't got a motor in the back of her Honda."
  • "So Cosmo^note Cosmopolitan Magazine says you're fat, well I ain't down with that."
• Token White: From "Posse On Broadway":
  "Larry is the white guy who's lookin' kinda funny
  A real estate investor who makes a lot of money."

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