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Go ahead and get those laughs out of the way: I’m trying to write serious review of Anthony Ray’s Wednesday night Summerfest show. You, of course, know him as Sir Mix-a-Lot, and unless you listened to his tapes on college road trips in the early ‘90s (like me), you probably recognize just one of his songs.
So, yeah, in his first-ever Milwaukee show, Mr. A-Lot played "Baby Got Back," the double-platinum hit from 1992’s "Mack Daddy" album. And tonight, casual revelers from millennials to middle-aged (but mostly millennials) at times twerked in glee, even though twerking wasn’t called that back then.
But while he conceded that MTV called him a one-hit wonder, the Seattle rapper also played other stuff. Stuff I remember.
Like "Posse on Broadway," "Beepers" and "My Hooptie." That’s still my favorite Mix song, about his beat-up ’69 Buick that, at this point in his career, he’s definitely not still driving.
You may not guess it, but Sir Mix-a-Lot is a super-skilled rapper. He came out flying through rhymes. "This is what what old folks do to warm up," he said. "But y’all don’t come here to listen to a bunch of songs you don’t know. You came here for old school."
With just four people on stage (his DJ was wearing a Seahawks jersey), Mix showed plenty of youth, even as he put on – and took off – his ‘80s gear. I particularly liked his backup dancer without a mic, mostly jumping around, grabbing his jock and occasionally spraying the crowd with silly string.
Yeah, this is a man who made his money with lines like "My anaconda don’t want none unless you’ve got buns, hon." But even if Sir Mix-a-Lot never took himself too seriously, he wasn’t all jokes as he talked about his poor days, blowing his money on a Ferrari, which led to a fierce version of "Testarossa" from 1992.
More-than-casual fans remembered "Put ‘Em On The Glass," which brought me back to Daytona Beach in 1996, but beyond that, this group wasn’t at the Johnson Controls World Sound Stage for serious reflection. Really, the only serious business was ‘90s throwback fun.
The only problem was that this group was too young too really get it. At one point, Mix asked the crowd how many people were over 40. Only a smattering of us raised our hands.
The Sir is pretty self-aware, though, and he isn’t really a rapper made for 2016. His last album dropped in 2003 – though he’s still doing stuff, and, more importantly, his influence is still being felt. Nicki Minaj sampled "Baby Got Back" on 2014’s "Anaconda," and he performed with the Seattle Symphony on a new composition that year, too.
More recently, the 52-year-old hat-wearing rapper found himself in a weird hubbub in May when actress Blake Lively Instagrammed a bootylicious red carpet photo, evoking questions about who really likes big butts and cannot lie. Spoiler alert: Mix-a-Lot says it’s not about race, which was evident tonight.
To that extent, white and black (read: mostly white), men and women (read: mostly women), had fun. Mix-a-Lot dropped a ton of Milwaukee and 414 references into his songs, interspersing "What’s up, Milwaukee" into "Jam on It." The Brewers and Bucks name-drops worked, too. The crowd only sorta understood when he represented Seattle with a Nirvana jam.
But of course, they went nuts for his extended "Baby Got Back" in this 70-minute show. He invited at least 25 girls on stage (and two d-bags who helped themselves), and they more than re-enacted his famous video. Mix jumped into the audience for high fives, too. It was pretty great.
I found one of the impromptu dancers after the show and asked her what it was like. "I took a selfie with him," said Elizabeth from Lake Geneva. "He gave me a bottle of water."
So while there was no glass on which to put them, on a hot, sticky night, Summerfest shook those healthy butts. Even if they didn’t totally get it, Sir Mix-a-Lot did, and it took me back to my favorite music from college.
Silly but sincere, this old-school rapper put on one of the most fun Summerfest shows I’ve seen in a long time.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
