Sir Mix-A-Lot In Nicki Minaj’s New Single ‘Anaconda’

Nicki Minaj’s new single, “Anaconda,” has a bit of a musical forefather in the form of “Baby Got Back.” The ubiquitous 1992 hit from Sir Mix-A-Lot is sampled in the beat for the Young Money rapper’s new song, which dropped on Monday (August 4), and some of his iconic lines — “My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns, hun;” “Little in the middle but she got much back;” “Oh my gosh, look at her butt” — are used throughout.

“Initially, it was more the music, and she was trying to weigh out a chorus,” Sir Mix-A-Lot told a source, adding that her managers at first reached out asking to sample the song, and he and Universal cleared the move. “Next thing I knew, she was feeling good about it. And the ‘Anaconda’ version, I never heard until she was done; I heard it with everybody else.”

The Seattle native still hasn’t met Ms. Minaj, but he was in contact with her during the recording process. “She called [while she was] in the studio,” he said, explaining that he often gets requests to use the song, but is selective about how he handles his publishing. “I don’t really know Nicki Minaj, but I can tell you this: Lazy, she is not. That girl works hard. I was blown away by her work ethic. She would hit us up, she’d be in the studio vibing, coming up with different ideas, making sure those ideas were cool. She’d call you back after a couple more hours.”

Though he was involved in some of the behind-the-scenes — and praised Nicki for the way she handled the business side of things — Mix witnessed the rollout just like the rest of us. Including the cover art.

“Wooooh! When I saw the cover, I almost forgot about the song,” he joked. “I looked at that for about an hour.”

He’d even let her take the reigns on a 2014 “Baby Got Back” video remake (not that there are any plans, unfortunately).

“She can direct it, be in it, tell me who else to put in it. Whatever she wants. That girl is incredible.”