Sir Mix-A-Lot

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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 co-founded the Nastymix record label in 1983 with his DJ, Nasty Nes, who also hosted Seattle's first hip-hop radio show. Mix-A-Lot had long had a knack for mimicking (and mocking) the pimps he'd watched while growing up in Seattle, and adopted their visual style. He debuted for Def American with 1992's Mack Daddy, whose first single, "One Time's Got No Case," was a critique of racial profiling by police. It went virtually unheard, but the follow-up, "Baby Got Back," became a pop phenomenon virtually from the moment MTV aired its provocative video (which was eventually consigned to evening-hours only). "Baby Got Back" spent five weeks atop the pop charts, selling over two million copies and went on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. Billboard magazine ranked it as the second biggest single of the year (1992).