Sir Mix-A-Lot Coming to Wild Buffalo on September 22nd with Special Guests

Sir Mix-A-Lot parlayed a gonzo tribute to women with large buttocks into hip-hop immortality.  But even before he struck crossover gold, Sir Mix-A-Lot was one of raps great D.I.Y. success stories. Coming from a city  Seattle  with barely any hip-hop scene to speak of, Mix-A-Lot co-founded his own record label, promoted his music himself, produced all his own tracks, and essentially pulled himself up by the proverbial American bootstraps. Even before Baby Got Back, Mix-A-Lot was a platinum-selling album artist with a strong following in the hip-hop community, known for bouncy, danceable, bass-heavy tracks indebted to old-school electro. However, it took signing with Rick Rubins Def American label  coupled with an exaggerated,parodic pimp image  to carry him into the mainstream.

Perceived as a one-hit novelty, he found it difficult to follow his breakout success, but kept on recording, and even toured as part of a rap-rock supergroup called Subset, a collaboration with the Presidents of the United States of America. Sir Mix-A-Lot was born Anthony Ray in Seattle on August 12, 1963. An eclectic music fan but a rabid hip-hop devotee, he was already actively rapping in the early 80s, and cofounded the Nastymix record label in 1983 with his DJ, Nasty Nes, who also hosted Seattles first hip-hop radio show. His first single was 1987s Posse on Broadway, which referred to a street in Seattle, not New York; it became a local hit, and paved the way for his first LP, 1988s Swass,which also featured the popular novelty Square Dance Rap, and a Run-D.M.C.-style cover of Black Sabbaths Iron Man, with backing by Seattle thrashers Metal Church.

Tickets to Mix’s forthcoming Wild Buffalo performance can be found here.