Baby Got Back

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"Baby Got Back"
Single by Sir Mix-a-Lot
from the album Mack Daddy
B-side "Cake Boy"
Released February 27, 1992 [1]
Format 7", 12", Cassette single, CD single
Recorded 1990
Genre Hip hop
Label Def American
Writer(s) Sir Mix-a-Lot
Producer Sir Mix-a-Lot
Sir Mix-a-Lot singles chronology
"I Got Game"
(1991)		 "Baby Got Back"
(1992)		 "Ride"
(1992)

"Baby Got Back" is a 1992 hip hop song by Sir Mix-a-Lot from his album Mack Daddy. The song famously starts with a discussion between two thin, white valley girls, with one girl remarking to the other "Oh my God, Becky! Look at her butt! It is so big. She looks like one of those rap guys' girlfriends." At the time of its original release, the song caused controversy with its outspoken and blatantly sexual lyrics about the female anatomy, and the video was briefly banned by MTV.[1] However, it has remained very popular over time. It samples Channel One's "Technicolor".

In 2008, it was ranked number 17 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop[citation needed] .

Contents

[edit] Chart performance and awards

Sir Mix-a-Lot's best known song, "Baby Got Back" reached number 1 on the United States' Billboard Hot 100 chart for five weeks in the summer of 1992, and won a 1993 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. It has been frequently covered, parodied, and referenced by others.[citation needed] It was placed at number 6 on Vh1's Greatest Songs of the '90s.

[edit] Alternate versions

  • Sir Mix-a-Lot has recorded at least three different commercial versions of the hit song, one a Target commercial aimed towards preteens that replaces "I like big butts and I cannot lie" with "I like backpacks and I cannot lie", the other is a ringtone that begins "Pick up the phone! Pick up the phone! 'Cause you want this call and you cannot lie!". An Adelie penguin named Ramone sings to an Emperor penguin named Gloria in the movie Happy Feet: "I like big tails and I can't deny!"
  • A reworded version was released soon after by MC Sampler (Harry Artin), named "Baby Got Jack", where instead of wanting big butts, Sampler wants a "White honkey, with a real small booty"; this song is commonly miscredited to Adam Sandler and Weird Al Yankovic, much to the distress of Sampler as his YouTube video implies.
  • Sir Mix-a-Lot played a heavy metal version of "Baby Got Back" during a live show at the Showbox in Seatttle on July 18, 2008.
  • On the Robot Chicken Season 3 finale, "Chirlaxx", Sir Mix-a-Lot sings a parody called "Table Be Round", which is about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
  • In April 2009, Burger King released a commercial in the U.S. promoting the opportunity to receive a BK Kids' Meal deal that includes a SpongeBob Squarepants toy for 99 cents with a purchase of an Adult Value Meal. The commercial is a parody of the music video featuring rapping by The Burger King who starts with the line "I Like Square Butts, and I cannot lie..." and women flaunting their square-shaped rear ends throughout. Sir-Mix-A-Lot himself makes a brief cameo appearance in the commercial watching the ad, saying "Booty is booty."[6]

[edit] In other media

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (October 2008)
  • To promote the single, a giant inflatable posterior toured the country, appearing outside record stores. It can be glimpsed in Joel Schumacher's 1993 film Falling Down.
  • On the song "It's On" from rap group Naughty by Nature's 1993 album 19 Naughty III, Vin Rock spoke out against Sir-Mix-a-Lot and this song, stating: "Baby ain't got back/ Baby got Black/ So when you see Black baby, you respect that".
  • On VH1's Greatest Songs of the 90s, Sir-Mix-a-Lot joked that he was "the dancing turd" during the music video, in which he is on top of a huge sculpture that resembles a butt crack.
  • In The Simpsons episode "Midnight Rx", two musical scores are present: first Huey Lewis's "I Want a New Drug" and then "Baby Got Back". Dr. Hibbert performs it.
  • In the "Treehouse of Horror XVII" episode of The Simpsons, while Homer becomes a humongous green blob, Sir Mix-a-Lot sings a parody that starts off "I like big guts and I cannot lie..."
  • Hardcore band Throwdown covered the song for Too Legit for the Pit: Hardcore Takes the Rap in 2001. This version appears on their Face in the Mirror EP.
  • It was ranked the 12th greatest one-hit wonder and the 6th greatest song of the 1990s by VH1.
  • In the TV sitcom Friends, Rachel and Ross sing it to their baby daughter Emma because it turns out to be the only song that makes the baby laugh.
  • In Drawn Together episode "Toot Goes Bollywood", Spanky sings "Baby Got Back" with a start of the lines "I like big ass, I cannot lie...", Ling-Ling, Captain Hero, Xandir, Clara, and Wooldoor join him to sing together.
  • American Idol Season 6 runner-up Blake Lewis performed this song with Sir Mix-a-Lot at Seattle's Westlake Center when Lewis returned home during the top three hometown visits.
  • In Living Color makes a parody of the song called "Baby Got Snacks", in which Jamie Foxx portrays Trail-Mix-A-Lot.
  • Kim Kardashian and Mark Ballas performed a mambo to this song on the seventh season of the U.S. version of Dancing With The Stars. They earned an 18/30.
  • In One Tree Hill as part of Felix's dare night, Mouth, Skills and Fergie perform "Baby Got Back" on karaoke.
  • In the NewsRadio episode "Rap," Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman) reads the lyrics to "Baby Got Back" while launching a protest against rap music. At the beginning of an earlier conversation, Bill asks if anyone has ever listened to rap before, to which Beth responds, "Does Sir Mix-a-Lot like booty?"
  • The song is played in the movie Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. The character Master Betty has one of his goons play it on a 80's style boombox as he fights. When the main character finds his defeated master, the master warns "Beware his song about big butts. He beats you up while he plays it."
  • In 2008, the song is featured in an American commercial for Keystone Light beer where a man attempts to reconcile with an ex-girlfriend at a convenience store by claiming that he has matured. His explanation is interrupted by his cellphone's ringtone of "Baby Got Back", revealing that he has not.[7]
  • On the 17th episode of the 34th season of Saturday Night Live, the song was used in a fake advertisement depicting Sir Mix-a-Lot as the owner of a photo shop that enlarges women's bottoms in photographs. The advertisement incorporated the lyrics of the song and even parodied the opening dialogue.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Baby Got Back Songfacts. Songfacts. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  2. ^ "ASIN: B001I1TU2Y". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001I1TU2Y/. Retrieved on 2008-11-05. 
  3. ^ http://www.mphtower.com/web/content/view/79/37/
  4. ^ http://www.jonathancoulton.com/wiki/index.php/Baby_Got_Back
  5. ^ http://www.jonathancoulton.com//2005/10/18/wowie-zowie/
  6. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gMZ62PsvRM
  7. ^ http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=101929&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=1127159&highlight=

[edit] See also

Preceded by
"I'll Be There" by Mariah Carey		 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
July 4, 1992 – August 1, 1992		 Succeeded by
"This Used to Be My Playground" by Madonna
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Got_Back"
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