SIR MIX-A-LOT

In hip-hop, what you have is you have a lot of formulaic-type bands or rappers that come up. They saw something on the radio, and they want to mimic that formula. And that's just boring. I don't wanna record something just to make money; I want to record something to enjoy it and have fun because I'm a music lover.

I have never met a successful person who talked about failing. The glass is always half full. I don't even like being around negative talkers.

Pop concerts create an audience for Pops concerts, not an audience for classical symphonic concerts.

I follow politics in a big way, and always have since I was a kid. I've got opinions, but they're opinions on both sides - not just anti-Republican, which is a real popular thing for a rap artist to do. If you dis Republicans, nobody will get mad. I think the two-party system sucks. It's absolutely ignorant.

After 'Return Of The Bumpasaurus' in '96, I just got away from music for, like, a year. Literally, I think I produced two songs in a year. I was totally kicking it, running around.

I love listening to old school stuff. I listen to some new cats out here, but I'm really into, like, Tech N9ne and his clique; I really like Eminem and those guys - cats that got real flow: I really connect with that. But I do love rock. I love a lot of electronica because I love programming synthesizers.

I think what's beautiful when you're looking at artists like Macklemore and you're looking at artists like Ayron Jones, they're proud of Seattle and they're bringing it back. Seattle's a real music town. When you act ashamed of that, you should be pushed outta the game as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not really a Democrat or a Republican, but I don't like rhetoric.

Successful people jump at opportunity and take advantage of it.

I never envisioned being number one for five weeks, knocking Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men off the charts. That's the scariest thing and the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

When you get haters you actually feel like you're a success.

I still love 'Baby Got Back.' I will perform it until I drop.

I build a lot of stuff, but I'm not a 'construction guy.' But I'm one of these guys that sits with his hands on his hips and tells you I'm gonna fix everything.

The only thing that doesn't drop in a down market is entertainment money.

When I did 'Baby Got Back,' that was just a reflection of the African-American community. We've always liked curves, and a lot of people misunderstood it because let's face it: 20 years prior to 'Baby Got Back,' the only images you saw of a black woman on television were she was probably 300 pounds and cleaning the house with a rag on her head.

I grew up listening to a lot of Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, Devo, all that stuff.

Inventors often don't know how to pitch their ideas. So many people in Silicon Valley want to hear you say 'disruptive,' and tote a 'platform.' They repeat buzzwords over and over, and I think it intimidates a real inventor.

I'll tell you who doesn't get enough credit, Soulja Boy. He was the first one to do something, post it, yank it down, and sell more records because of it.

That was the coolest thing about 'Baby Got Back.' The establishment didn't embrace the song, which is what kept me from being the next pop guy to fizzle out and get laughed at, get dissed on TV. That helped save me. The fact that MTV banned the record made the record, in a weird way.

I like kitchens. I'm a kitchen and bathroom freak.

What I liked about grunge was the realness. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't glamorous.

I thought the grunge scene was cool. This is going to sound weird, but I remember doing a concert at a tavern in the mid-'80s with Nirvana.

I tried gimmicky stuff 'cause I wanted to get some attention, and remember, you know, in the rap world Seattle was a cave. There was no light.

A lot of people have said 'people should see you work in the studio,' because a lot of people don't realize I'm an actual engineer. I don't walk in and have some guy grab the board. I have my own studio and soldered every wire in the studio.

Bottom line: Black men like curves. When they're crooning to women about how beautiful they are in an R&B song, the ladies you see in the video don't reflect what those guys like.