Baby Got Back - Synopsis

Synopsis

The first verse begins, "I like big butts and I cannot lie", and most of the song is about being attracted to large buttocks. The second and third verse challenge mainstream norms of beauty: "I ain't talkin' bout Playboy. Cuz silicone parts are made for toys" and "So Cosmo says you're fat / Well I ain't down with that!". Sir Mix-a-Lot commented in a 1992 interview: "The song doesn't just say I like large butts, you know? The song is talking about women who damn near kill themselves to try to look like these beanpole models that you see in Vogue magazine." He explains that most women respond positively to the song's message, especially black women: "They all say, 'About time.'"

Also brought to the forefront of pop culture by this song is a generally accepted white standard of beauty — a skinny body lacking in voluptuous curves. In the prelude that opens the song there is a conversation between two (presumably) thin, white valley girls, where one girl remarks to her friend, "Oh, my God, Becky, look at her butt! It is so big She's just so ... black!", to which Sir Mix-a-Lot, representing the African-American subculture's view, says: "You other brothers can't deny" and "Take the average black man and ask him...". However, Sir Mix-a-Lot follows this in a later verse with "Even white boys got to shout," indicating that it is not only African-American men who are attracted to curvy women.

Dialogue of Eurasian actress Papillon Soo Soo saying "Me so horny" is sampled from Full Metal Jacket to complete Sir Mix-a-Lot's lyric, "that butt of yours makes..." It is one of two popular rap songs of the era (along with 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny") in which her dialogue from the film is featured.