Sir Mix-a-Lot

Anthony L. Ray (born August 12, 1963), better known by his stage name Sir Mix-a-Lot or his CB handle Prime Minista, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer.

Anthony Ray was born on August 12, 1963, in Auburn, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, and grew up in Seattle's Central District.

In Ray's youth, his mother worked as a licensed practical nurse at the King County Jail.

From 1978 to 1999, when the busing program was in operation, minorities carried the burden of busing, going from the South End and the Central Area to predominantly white schools in the North End.

Ray said he knew that some North End residents did not want black children bused into their neighborhoods.

But for him, the experience offered respite from the projects.

"I've heard things like, 'Forced integration is not good,' 'I want my kid to be able to go to school in our community; that's why we moved here' – all those things I totally understand," he said.

"But from my perspective, I didn't have the luxury of living in a neighborhood where a good school was. We didn't make that kind of money. So from my perspective, it was the best thing that could have happened to me."

A music teacher at Eckstein Middle School introduced Ray to the possibility of a music career.

Ray was interested in electronics and CB radio from a young age.

One of his early jobs was working at a pinball arcade servicing machines, and during that time he started to fix keyboards and other musical equipment.

He still works with electronics as a hobby.

Soon after high school, he began DJing parties at local community centers.

Ray was a fan of hip hop and started rapping in the early 1980s.

By 1983, Sir Mix-A-Lot had begun playing weekends regularly at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club in South Seattle.

Soon he moved locations and started hosting his parties at the Rotary Boys and Girls Club in the Central District.

It was there that he met 'Nasty' Nes Rodriguez, a local radio DJ and host of Fresh Tracks, the West Coast's first rap radio show on Seattle station KKFX (K-Fox).

Sir Mix-a-Lot partnered with Nasty Nes and local businessman Ed Locke to found the Nastymix record label in 1983.

The first song to gain popularity outside of Seattle was "Square Dance Rap" in 1986.

Released in 1987, the single made the Top 100 but quickly disappeared, although it remains popular in the Seattle area for its references to many local landmarks.

Swass, Sir Mix-a-Lot's debut album, was released in 1988 with two other singles: "Square-Dance Rap" and "Iron Man", a rap metal track sampling from the song of the same name by Black Sabbath; it was backed by the band Metal Church.

Seminar, released in 1989, featured "My Hooptie", "Beepers", "Gortex" and "I Got Game".

In 1990, the Recording Industry Association of America certified Swass platinum.

In 1991, Sir Mix-A-Lot signed to the Def American label, which also bought the rights to his first two albums, and released his third album Mack Daddy in 1992.

He is best known for his 1992 hit song "Baby Got Back", which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

The single "Baby Got Back" was a number one hit that went double platinum and won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance.

MTV aired the music video for the song only after 9 PM because of "many, many, complaints."

In 1993, Sir Mix-a-Lot collaborated with Seattle-based grunge band Mudhoney for the song "Freak Momma" on the Judgment Night soundtrack.

In 1994, he released the album Chief Boot Knocka, which reached #69 on the Billboard 200 and #28 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Charts.

The album featured the hit single "Put 'Em On The Glass".

"Just Da Pimpin' in Me" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance but lost to "Let Me Ride" by Dr. Dre.

When his 1996 album Return of the Bumpasaurus was only given a low label promotion, leading to lackluster sales, Sir Mix-a-Lot left Def American.

During the time off, he worked closely with the band The Presidents of the United States of America under the group name "Subset" with a combination of rock and rap music, but nothing was ever officially released.

Mix-a-Lot had originally decided to rap the entire song slowly, then speed it up and increase its pitch in post production, Mix later told Seattle Refined in 2018 that "I didn't want to rap, that's why I use this weird Smurf voice".

After the song was picked up by DJs in clubs nationwide, he toured Florida, New York, and other states.

While in Arizona, he noticed a street named Broadway with a restaurant named Dick's, just like Seattle.

This gave him the idea to write his next hit, "Posse on Broadway".

The title referred to Broadway in Seattle's Capitol Hill district.

While living in the Bryant Manor apartments on 19th Ave and East Yesler Way, Anthony Ray started school at Roosevelt High School, near the University District, when the Seattle Public School District was in the throes of what would be a 21-year experiment to integrate the school system; Guns N' Roses member Duff McKagan and actress Rose McGowan also went there.

Students were bused from their neighborhoods to schools at the other end of the city.