our next guest,
a grammy award winning rapper best known for his 1992 hit Baby Got Back and
now he's remixing that iconic track for the first time in its 30 year history,
which is wild.
Uh huh. And it's all in celebration of Chex Mix bringing back the bagel chip.
And it comes after more than a decade and endless petitions
and calls to have it rejoined the snack brands original recipe.
I got the chance to speak with Sir Mix a lot
about the new campaign and the legacy of Baby Got back.
So Chex Mix has said there was no better way to bring
back the bagel chip than via a partnership with you the O.
G.
Of mixes,
can you walk us through the process of updating the lyrics
of Baby Got back to make the song about Chex mix?
It was it was interesting, it was interesting because you know,
I've always worked in a place where I was, I controlled everything,
it was all me my stuff, right?
And these guys had some messages,
they need they needed kind of put in rap form and they made sure that I got them done
and um I had a lot of fun actually, I I love challenges and this one was pretty fun.
I mean I was even working in hotel rooms on tour, still tracking vocals and stuff.
So it was it was wild, it was stressful but I had a good time, awesome, awesome.
It sounds super fun.
How how much um I guess Liberty did you have when it came to the video?
You know what?
I was surprised at how much Liberty I had because I, I,
I thought I was gonna get slapped around.
Pretty bad. So I go over and talk to my manager a man.
You think, what do they say if I do this, what do they say? If I say this, just say it man.
And pretty much if even if they disagreed,
I understood why because they would explain, you know, well,
we're not selling music here, young man.
We're selling
this stuff right here. This is what we're selling today. Right?
So they had to make sure that I knew that we had to
talk about the good stuff and of course I ate a lot.
I did my research. Of course you had to test the product.
So it's no surprise that you're a big fan of chex mix. Right?
When you read, you actually eat honey nut chex every morning for breakfast
this morning too. So when did you realize you were obsessed with this?
When did you find your love for chex mix?
Probably when I was, when it came out, it wasn't, it was just regular checks first.
That's how old I am. I'm so old. I'm antique. Right?
So I started eating regular stuff and then they put
the honey nut together and I was like good.
That's all I need right there.
So I, that's when I officially converted from cheerios. The Czechs, love it. Good.
Good switch up, I'd say.
So when Baby Got Back was released in 1992 it spent
five weeks at number one on the billboard hot 100.
We'll talk about your accolades a little bit. And then in 2008 VH one ranked
17th on its list, 100 greatest songs of hip hop.
And last year the song celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Why do you think Baby Got Back has had such a lasting legacy?
I always feel like when, when people make a gigantic pop song,
it's never intentional.
Right? So the problem most people have is after they've created that giant pop hit,
How do they keep credibility? Right?
Because then it, it goes like this, then it then it's corny and then it's gone.
Right, Baby Got Back was one of those songs. It's, and I don't think it has.
I don't think it's happened ever again. I don't think it's happened in history.
It was banned while it was number one.
Think about that. So it became
the forbidden fruit which gave it legs.
That's what made prince so great.
That's what made Elvis last so long was he swiveled his
hips on the Ed Sullivan show and all of a sudden,
you know, he's the forbidden fruit and he wasn't corny anymore.
Well, he wasn't corny then. Anyway.
So yeah, So you were on the up and up and you never went back down, I think fair to say,
right.
Yeah, yeah, It's like, you know when you get
you know, you don't want to be on the white horse with the shiny teeth and you know,
you want to be a little bit dirty to mom and dad and that's when it starts to work,
right?
That's when songs, when your mom is like turn that off boy.
Yeah, that's a little bit. You wanna offend mom just a little bit.
So I gotta ask you.
TMC has reported that you were inspired to write the
song after seeing J Lo perform on in living color.
But there are also different stories out there about how
you came up with the idea of the song.
I know maybe um sort of championing curve your bodies at the time,
so I need you to set the record straight, Tell us, you know, the inspiration.
The song was definitely not about J Lo because at that time I
think J Lo was like a teenager that would have been really perverted,
so that and that's not what was not about J Lo didn't know who she was yet,
I don't know who she is now and it does fit.
But no, the song was really about my frustration
um with the way african american females were
uh presented in in show business, they were always playing maids um
you know, the the smart mouth next door neighbor on comedy shows, stuff like that,
but they never had lead roles,
they never had a role where they were sensible
or or they had to assimilate to something else.
And I think that the beauty of baby got back is
that it made it made those sisters understand somebody had their back
in show business and it worked because now I'm not saying I'm
the reason but now Black Beauty is normalized which is beautiful,
beautiful.
It worked and it's here to stay.
Oh yeah, it ain't going nowhere. It ain't going nowhere.
Okay, my last question, we got to wrap it up sir. Mix a lot I have to ask.
Do you indeed still like big butts?
Let me tell you something that I will be 89 years old walking down the street going,
whoa, that's a juicy one there.
Well thank you to rapper sir. Mix a lot and I mean what do you think?
Big but still in I mean I guess I'm not surprised. He says he still likes big butts.
I thought maybe he wanted to go a little bit economical maybe. Right. We thought
we were gonna go viral if he says no