Happy 35th Anniversary to Sir Mix-A-Lot’s second studio album Seminar, originally released October 17, 1989.
I find it strange that many people believe that the career of Anthony “Sir Mix-A-Lot” Ray started and ended with Mack Daddy (1992), his third album. More specifically, they believe that “Baby Got Back” was his only contribution to the cultural conversation. But well before his ode to big butts became a phenomenon, Sir Mix-A-Lot sold millions of records, going platinum with his first album Swass (1988) and establishing the Seattle hip-hop scene along the way.
Using a solid delivery, tongue-in-cheek humor, and an electro-funk driven sound, Sir Mix-A-Lot became a Seattle institution before gaining respect across the country and the globe. His second album Seminar was not as commercially successful as Swass, but it was still certified Gold, selling in excess of 700,000 copies. It’s also Mix-A-Lot’s best album, as he improved as an emcee and began to vary his production style.
Mix-A-Lot’s massive commercial success has somewhat masked his abilities as an emcee, making his skill go unappreciated. He’s always been a good storyteller, injecting his sense of humor into his narratives to make them more relatable and to show that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. However, he also shows that he knows when to get serious on this album, treating certain subject matter with the respect it deserves. “The song just a canvas,” he raps. “I paint a picture of life, ’cause some demand this.”
Behind the board, Mix-A-Lot still favors drum machines, creating tracks with heavy electro and old school hip-hop influences. Seminar features some of the most underrated drum programming since Audio Two’s What More Can I Say? (1988) and Mix-A-Lot also branches out a bit by sampling a bit more. To Mix-A-Lot’s credit, he doesn’t raid a stack of James Brown and Ultimate Beats and Breaks records; in fact, he throws barbs at many who do. If anything, he seems to prefer sampling contemporary pop and rock hits, which makes for some interesting choices.
Though the subject matter of “Beepers,” the album’s first single, has not aged particularly well, it’s still entertaining. Over a sample of the “Vicki Vale” breakdown from Prince’s “Batdance” (released only months earlier), Mix-A-Lot spends much of the song bragging about the awesomeness of his SkyTel Sky Pager (“Looks like a phaser”), a technological advance that now seems extremely quaint given the complete ubiquity of smart phones. His cleverness makes the track work, as he references Olympic gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi and clowns guys with fake beepers for “walking in the party, looking like Joker: Big ole six inch garage door openers.”
“My Hooptie” is an ever better song and probably the best single in Mix-A-Lot’s catalogue. With pitch-perfect humor, he regales the listeners with his efforts to navigate his busted 1969 Buick Electra 225, a “four door nightmare,” through the streets of Seattle while his Benz is in the shop. Besides dealing with frequent breakdowns, he finds himself contending with people clowning him and potentially hostile police officers who assume that the four Black men in a beat-to-shit Buick are up to no good.
Listen to the Album:
On “I Got Game,” Mix-A-Lot switches from his hooptie to high performance automobiles, as he educates his audience on how he pulls the flyest women in the Emerald City. Over a synth-heavy sample of Rick James’ “Hard To Get,” he spins four separate tales of pulling four separate hotties while driving four different cars. If nothing else, we learn that playing Luther Vandross for a woman doesn’t always put her in the mood.
Seminar also features some of Mix-A-Lot’s first “socially conscious” recordings, as he tackles both the drug crisis and government corruption. He repurposes Siouxsie and The Banshees’ “Peek-A-Boo” for “The (Peek-A-Boo) Game,” a harrowing “based on a true story” account of the life of stripper. He recounts in lurid detail the descent of the anonymous subject into drug addiction and dangerous sex work in what started as a pursuit of a little extra money.
“National Anthem” is Mix-A-Lot’s attempt to pierce the “God Bless America” myth, and probably one of the few hip-hop recordings that covered the Iran Contra scandal. In a 2003 AV Club interview, he explained that the song was designed to remind U.S. citizens that before we brag about our superiority, “let's get our own house in order.” Mix-A-Lot kicks some incisive commentary throughout the song about how our society views the country’s poor and under-privileged residents. He observes, “I saw my homeboy’s mother with a buggy and a bag / People walk by, laughing at poverty / I looked in her face and I soon saw me.”
Mix-A-Lot also dedicates chunks of Seminar to establishing his badass bona fides, establishing himself as someone not to be fucked with on the mic or the streets. “Gortex” is his dedication to the rugged, steel-toe boots that he likes to wear, used for stomping through Seattle terrain and stomping the shit out of anyone that steps to him. Rapping in short, clipped phrases, he outlines the uses of the shit-kickers, barking, “Pulverize punks when we throw” and “Bow, and we kick you in the snoot.”
“I’ll Roll You Up” is some pure rap-fueled heat, with Mix-A-Lot delivering rugged lyrical beatdowns on ducks and other sucker emcees. Originally released as a B-side to his “Iron Man” single, the drums pound, shuffle, and pulse, keyboards squeal, as electronic voices punctuate the track. Mix-A-Lot utilizes the best wordplay and complex deliveries of his career as he issues beatdowns on rap ducks, boasting how he’ll “hit ’em the Batman punch.” He then thunders that he’s “quick to cut on any concert quack / Lip-synching rhymes off a raggedy tracks” and “They are crushed, turning suckers to slush / Heavyweight beef for you punks that fuss.”
Watch the Official Videos:
“Something About My Benzo” is a stylistic departure for Mix-A-Lot, but one of the strongest entries on Seminar. Subject matter-wise, it falls in the purview of the rest of the album, since it concerns Mix-A-Lot flossin’ throughout the country from the driver’s seat of his Mercedes Benz. But in terms of his rap performance, he is almost unrecognizable on the microphone. He slows his voice and delivery down to a sneering drawl, dripping with cool and contempt. Beat-wise, his drum programming is second to none, with the rhythm constantly evolving.
Three-and-a-half decades later, and I feel like Seminar doesn’t get the respect that it deserves. Mix-A-Lot had continued to mature as an artist without losing what made him memorable in the first place, and improved his output in the process. A few years later, he would become a superstar almost by accident, but he still earned the respect he deserved with albums like Seminar.
LISTEN:
Editor's note: this anniversary tribute was originally published in 2019 and has since been edited for accuracy and timeliness.