Q&A: Sir Mix-a-Lot Talks "Baby Got Back," Big Butts, and Big Women

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In 1992, the Seattle rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot mounted a deeply dented half-peach hill and boasted proudly, defiantly, ravenously: I Like. Big. Butts! And I cannot lie! Nearly 20 years later, "Baby Got Back" still reigns as the big-booty anthem of the 20th century. Although the archetype of feminine pulchritude lyrically sculpted by the Billboard chart-topper was one with an "itty bitty" waist planted atop a "real thick and juicy" backside, the double-Platinum classic has since been adopted as a fat-people psalm, something that Guys Who Like Fat Chicks could "nod solemnly in solidarity with," as one 28-year-old Fat Admirer interviewed for this week's feature story put it.

The 48-year-old gearhead--born Anthony Ray--didn't intend this, though he's certainly not mad at it. As the Grammy winner explained over his cell phone from Grange, Atlanta, where he'd been for a convention, he was talking more about women shaped like J. Lo "at her peak" than Nell Carter. After the jump, hip-hop's most famous ass man elaborates.

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Legendary Rap Group Das EFX Are Looking For A New Manager on Craigslist

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This posting is real, incidentally: we just got off the phone with the group's Andre Weston, who confirmed that he'd upped the advertisement yesterday. Since then, about 50 people have contacted the duo. Why use Craigslist, a place people typically use to sell couches, and not to pick up new management in the industry they've been toiling in since 1988? "Shit, you saw it," Dre explains, "and about 50 other people saw it, so I'm just taking advantage of these outlets that are out here nowadays." He added: "We're just trying to make a connection with whoever is out there trying to make something happen." And what is one of the greatest rap crews of the '90s looking for in a manager, circa 2010?

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Here Is the Long-Awaited and Not Very Good Jay-Z/Dr. Dre Collaboration, "Under Pressure"

With the caveat that the track is almost certainly unfinished, listening to this makes us feel like these two men never should've left whatever comfortable yachts they were reclining on when they phoned this half a song in. We have no proof, but we're gonna guess that Jay wrote Dre's verse here too, so blame him for both--though the dreadful beat is surely entirely of Dre's own making. Here's to things that happen ten years too late? [Rap Radar]

Lady Sovereign Is Gay

And has been, for some time, apparently! Above, for instance, is a video of her talking about dating girls on Celebrity Big Brother UK, a series that averaged 3.7 million viewers per night during its January 2010 run. But it takes classier outlets -- The Guardian, in this case -- to bring news like this over the sea, so we're just finding out now. Why does this matter, even a little bit? Because she's basically the most famous rapper, ever, to come out of the closet.

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When Rich Rap Executives Talk About Their Gambling and Horse Racing Sinecures [and Also, Update: Subpoenas!]

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Half the world's money, in happier days
​Perhaps you recall the David Paterson scandal that broke early last week, before a much bigger scandal came along and more or less finished his political career? The one involving Jay-Z and the gambling consortium AEG, the latter of whom won slot a concession from David Paterson at Aqueduct Racetrack, despite submitting nowhere near the highest bid? And who just happened to cut Jay-Z in at a seven percent stake, right before they went about wooing outspoken Jay-Z buddy and fan David Paterson? Well, Def Jam founder Russell Simmons wants you to know that despite having apparently backed another, rival gambling consortium for the bid--see how crazy rap is now?--he's got nothing but love for his good friend Jay-Z, who stole the horse races right out from underneath him. To wit:

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Cornel West Disses Jay-Z!

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​"Guys like Talib Kweli and Lupe Fiasco rap messages and have something to say," America's second most famous living public intellectual told the University of Buffalo's Spectrum. "Now Jay-Z is on the radio and he's talented, but he's just not at the level he use to be at on Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint. The genius is still there, but there's no more motivation." Um...glass houses, Dr. West. [UBS via Rap Radar]

The Youth of America, According to a Middle Aged Rapper Named Jay, As Told By His Slighly More Youthful Friend Mr. Hudson: "Forever Young," the Video

The really likeable thing about what remains an underrated (though, uh, not that underrated) Blueprint 3 was the spectacle of Jay-Z thinking pretty seriously about what it meant to be an enormously successful and pretty definitively middle-aged rapper. He's the first and only to do it, with apologies to whatever Rakim album came out this year, or even OB4CL2--records that did not begin to take the whole ageing-in-rap dilemma seriously as a subject, though they may have been made by older men.

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Jay-Z Is 40 Years Old Today

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​Behold, the face of a man only one year younger than the God MC himself, Rakim Allah. We kind of jumped the gun on birthday wishes three months ago, but it turns out you can't write newspaper articles pegged to people's born days, so we had to do it the old-fashioned way. Rap Radar says he's celebrating down in the DR.

Eminem Can Still Rap, World. (So Can Black Thought.)

Every year, the BET Hip-Hop Awards--the 2009 edition of which aired last night--round up three or four different rapper cyphers, taped off-site and with somewhat counterintuitive gangs of MCs going in with what are ostensibly freestyles. Last year, Jadakiss, Fabolous, Juelz Santana, and Ace Hood teamed for what was one of the best rap singles of 2008 (it was even election-themed, sort of). This year, the gem was the triplicate pairing of Black Thought, Mos Def, and Eminem, the latter of whom usually doesn't descend from the clouds to do stuff like this, though on the evidence of his verse, he probably should. Like, all the time. Rap is OK! Also, Jay-Z, who really can take a play or two off, seriously, won the MVP of the Year trophy, Drake took Rookie of the Year, DJ AM won DJ of the Year, and Ice Cube got a lifetime achievement award. Rap is also old!

Eminem Cypher, Gucci Mane Performances Ignite BET Hip-Hop Awards [MTV]

Run-DMC, the Musical?

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​It's happening, according to Liz Smith (?!). Paula Wagner, Tom Cruise's producer, has apparently been shepherding Rev Run and DMC around Broadway, collecting inspiration for an original musical. "I feel their story lends itself perfectly to the stage," Wagner told Smith. "This project has been a passion of mine for some time and I couldn't be more thrilled to be working with them." OK! Can't wait to find out who killed Jam Master Jay. There was also talk, earlier this year, of a Run-DMC biopic. And of course, they have their own street sign now. And our children, sick as they will be about this rap group they do not care about, will not thank us for any of this.

Run-D.M.C. Hip-Hops to Broadway
[WowOWow]

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