Sir Mix-a-Lot’s song “Baby Got Back” is a certified smash hit, generating over $100 million in profit for the self-publishing rapper. He credits the song’s enduring popularity with keeping his career afloat for years.
A generational success, the song’s catchy tune and celebration of women with curvy figures have resonated with millions.
While its focus on physical attributes has sparked criticism in its peak years, the song’s undeniable success and comedic elements remain undeniable.
The Song That Keeps On Paying
In an interview with DJ Vlad on Aug. 20, 2014, that recently resurfaced on social media, Sir Mix-a-Lot reveals the song had already made $100 million in profit for him by then, having been sampled for Nicki Minaj‘s smash hit “Anaconda.”
“It’s definitely made over a $100 million. I can tell you that. I mean, I just look at my lifestyle and where it’s been since 1992 and it hasn’t fallen off,” Sir Mix-a-Lot said.
“Baby Got Back” reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed there for five weeks, according to Prefix Magazine.
The song came about when Sir Mix-a-Lot was at a Super Bowl gathering with a curvy woman. He noticed that a Budweiser commercial featured slim bikini women with big hairdos. This made him and his friends feel like the ad wasn’t inclusive.
He said he wondered what would happen if he rapped about his love for big butts and made it catchy and fun.
After previewing the song to Def Jam Records co-founder Rick Rubin, the rapper recalls that it was either the last or second-to-last track on his 1992 album, “Mack Daddy,” and he initially considered it a filler song. However, Rubin recognized its potential to become a hit.
“‘Get ready to make a lot of money.’ That was it. Rick Rubin said, ‘I think you’re gonna make a lot of money. Let’s polish this song off.’ So he’s the one that had me put, you know, every now and then you’ll see a four-bar, you see a drop on the fourth bar for my punchline. He’s the one that did that. He wanted the lines that could offend people even accentuated, and so I redid the track with that in mind, and that’s where the energy of the song came from,” Sir Mix-a-Lot told Vlad.
The artist also said he owned the publishing of the song, and explained he receives royalties whenever the song is played on the radio, streamed online, used in a movie, or sampled in another song.
According to WhoSampled, the song has been sampled more than 50 times in other songs.
Sir Mix-a-Lot also has the authority to grant licenses for covers, translations, or commercial use of the song.
“It’s made a lot of money, bro. I mean, because I believe, first of all, why own your publishing if you’re not willing to leverage it?” Sir-Mix-a-Lot said. “Some people own publishing to just sit around and say no to every single opportunity. But the reason you own publishing is because as you get on in your career, you can still monetize those tracks, number one. And number two, you can continue to record music with integrity.”
“So in other words, I can get in the studio and I’m doing a new record now, and I could give a s– less who buys it, because I make money on my publishing,” he continued. “So I put the record out, I have fun, my fans that are hardcore want to hear it, they can have it. And I do videos like that. I do the video called ‘Cars,’ didn’t even try to set a record. I just did the video because I always wanted to do it.”