"Baby Got Back" is a hit song written and recorded by American rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, from his album Mack Daddy. The song samples the 1986 Detroit techno single "Technicolor" by Channel One.
At the time of its original release, the song caused controversy with its outspoken and blatantly sexual lyrics about women, as well as specific references to the female buttocks which some people found objectionable. The video was briefly banned by MTV. "Baby Got Back" has remained popular and even anthemic since it was originally featured on the album Mack Daddy in 1992.
It was the second best-selling song in the US in 1992, behind Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", with sales of 2,392,000 physical copies that year. In 2008, it was ranked number 17 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.
The song debuted at number 75 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated April 11, 1992 and hit number one twelve weeks later.
Synopsis
The first verse begins with "I like big butts and I cannot lie" and most of the song is about the rapper's attraction to large buttocks. The second and third verse challenge mainstream norms of beauty: "I ain't talkin' 'bout Playboy/'Cause silicone parts are made for toys" and "So Cosmo says you're fat/Well I ain't down with that!"
The song came from a meeting of the minds between Sir Mix-A-Lot and Amylia Dorsey who saw little representation of full figured women in media. The idea came from the 1980s Budweiser commercial featuring very thin, valley girl-esque models. They decided to dedicate a song to the very opposite, featuring curvy women of color. Mix and Dorsey sought to, "broaden...the definition of beauty."
Sir Mix-a-Lot commented in a 1992 interview: "The song doesn't just say I like large butts, you know? The song is talking about women who damn near kill themselves to try to look like these beanpole models that you see in Vogue magazine." He explains that most women respond positively to the song's message, especially black women: "They all say, 'About time'."
In the song's prelude there is a conversation between two (presumably) thin, white valley girls. One girl named Linda (dubbed by Amylia Dorsey) remarks to her friend, "Oh, my God, Becky, look at her butt! It is so big [...] She's just so ... black!", at which point Sir Mix-a-Lot begins rapping of his love for big-bottomed girls.
The dialogue of British actress Papillon Soo Soo saying "Me so horny" is sampled from the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket to complete Sir Mix-a-Lot's lyric, "that butt you got makes..." It is one of two popular rap songs of the era (with 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny") in which her dialogue from the film is featured.
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