Sir Mix-A-Lot
Rap / Hip Hop
Sir Mix-A-Lot has been there and back. The Seattle rapper almost left the game after asking for a release from his American Recordings contract in the wake of 1996’s Return of the Bumpasaurus, but he’s returned to the road and the studio – just for the love of the music.
“I was gonna retire,” Mix says. He surveyed the modern hip-hop and saw a stagnant, if highly commercial, scene. “It’s not out of a love for the art; it’s an addiction to fame. They’re still talking about stuff I was talking about 15 years ago,” he says. But listening to renegade beatmasters like Missy Elliott, Timbaland and the Neptunes helped him reconnect with his muse and recall the days when rap was truly the future.
Sir Mix-A-Lot’s new album, Daddy’s Home, is the result of a complete refitting of his recording studio with new drum machines and synthesizers. The tracks carry his indelible mark while mirroring his insistence on breaking fresh ground. “Most artists are gonna say ‘This is a departure,” but this really is a departure,” he laughs. Under the terms of a deal with ARTISTdirect’s imprint label iMUSIC that allows him ownership of his masters, Mix says, he was given a large amount of artistic freedom by company head Marc Geiger.
“It’s not the same bullshit you hear from every MC,” he claims, “bling on the wrist, ho’s on jock, Cristal, Escalade. It’s what was on my mind. You’re gonna hear what made me crazy enough to believe I could do this years ago.
“This is not the same lyrical skills you heard from Mix before. It’s not an old-school record. I worked to upgrade my flow.” And he took it to the stage, touring on a set list comprised of half Mix favorites and half new material. “Songs like ‘Two Horse’ and ‘’Til the Sun Cums Up,’ that’s what it’s all about,” he opines, a smile audible in his words. “When you’re in a sweaty, hot club, up close, you can’t lip sync. You put on a real show or you get your ass kicked.”
"Game Don't Ever Get Old," as well as having an anthem-like chorus, is a track that addresses poignant issues all artists face and it showcases Mix’s artistic growth and career perspective. In the song he rhymes, "Some have died/ And some have tried to get it/ Some have cried/ And some girls have lied with it" as he discusses the sacrifices people make for their careers, while remaining stagnant in other aspects of their lives. Mix-A-Lot readily admits his regrets at allowing his demanding career to prevent him from getting married and starting a family.
Longtime followers, he says, have told him, “Man, it’s different to hear you talk like that.” But while “I’m not tryin’ to be too serious; I’m not pretending to be Chuck D, it means so much to me to say what I want to say. Money can really dilute and pollute what the music business should be about, what the music should be about.”
Sir Mix-A-Lot's wicked sense of humor and sharp rhymes put Seattle on the hip-hop map in 1987 with the release of the comical "Square Dance Rap" that received airplay alongside picks from Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, and UTFO.
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The year that followed saw Mix release his platinum debut album, Swass, that featured the staple rap hit "My Posse's On Broadway" that has been sampled by many including Destiny's Child.
Mix-A-Lot continued to usher street anthems on his gold certified 1989 sophomore album, Seminar, which included infectious, funny tracks such as "My Hooptie" and "Beepers." By 1992, Mix-A-Lot had recorded what would become the biggest song of his career to date, "Baby Got Back," for his album, Mack Daddy. The song received the year's Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance and has since become a permanent fixture in pop culture, having been featured in the Charlie's Angels movie and an episode of the hit television series Friends.
Two more albums, Chief Boot Knocka (featuring the strip-club anthem “Put ’Em on the Glass”) and Return of the Bumpasaurus, followed before Mix took his hiatus following the deaths of the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur in still unsolved murders. "The choices I had back in '96, '97 were not to make records or to come out and put on some shit, pull pistols and shit and front like I was a drug dealer, like I was a G, and that's not an option for me.”
Instead, he’s taken up the challenge, bringing the authority of a 17-year career to bear on hip-hop. “I don’t want to have a Number One song again,” he jokes. “It’s too much pressure.
“Of course, if it happens, I’m not gonna try to stop it.”
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