“Baby Got Back” Made $100 Million Dollars and 11 Other Things You Didn’t Know About That Song

February 4th, 2017 marked the 25th anniversary of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Mack Daddy album. And ever since the album’s second single “Baby Got Back” made its way onto the charts and became a dominant force, it never really left our public consciousness. After getting a new injection of lifeblood through Nicki Minaj’s sampling of the song in “Anaconda”, “Baby Got Back” will likely be around for at least another 25 years.

After learning that the song earned over $100 million dollars in 25 years from a Mix interview with DJ Vlad, I decided to write a long-form article about the song for Passion Of The Weiss. Here are 12 fascinating tidbits I learned during my research.

1. According to an interview with DJ Vlad, “Baby Got Back” has earned over $100,000,000 through publishing, royalties, and sales.
2. “Baby Got Back” started as a slow song similar to “Posse On Broadway”. Rick Rubin asked Mix to make it uptempo.
3. Before “Baby Got Back” Mix had already gone platinum with 1988’s Swass and come close to platinum with 1989’s Seminar on his independent NastyMix label.
4. The inspiration for “Baby Got Back” struck when Mix-A-Lot and his then girlfriend/model Amylia Dorsey-Rivas were annoyed with the ultra-skinny women in a Budweiser Super Bowl ad.
5. It went double platinum in three months and sold 145,000 units in a single week.
6. It was the second single from Mack Daddy. The first one, “One Time’s Got No Case”, was a flop.
7. Mix didn’t like the song at first and thought it would make people angry.
8. Mix’s hit spent seven months on the Billboard Hot 100.
9. Mix performed the song with The Seattle Symphony in 2014.
10. MTV banned the video for a short time and would only play it after 9 pm.
11. The song builds around a sample form the Detroit techno classic “Technicolor” by Channel One.
12. When Nicki Minaj sampled a generous portion of “Baby Got Back” for
    “Anaconda”, Mix was a big fan of the song.

To learn more about the fascinating backstory of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s booty anthem, check out my piece for Passion Of The Weiss. Or, read my other Micro-Chop article about Mix’s early platinum albums by clicking the link below.

Sir Mix-A-Lot Sold Millions of Records Before “Baby Got Back”

Connect with Sir Mix-A-Lot on Facebook, Instagram, and on Twitter @therealmix.

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