mix a lot of net worth jazz
What is the net worth of Mr. Mix-a-Lot?
Mr Mix-a-Lot is an American MC and producer who has a net worth of $30 million. Sir Mix-a-Lot was born Anthony Ray on August 12, 1963, in Seattle, Washington. Although he didn’t achieve international fame until the early 1990s, Jazz Mix actually went platinum with his 1988 debut album “Swass,” which was released through Mix’s own label, Nastymix. The album also featured the hit single “Posse on Broadway,” whose title refers to a street in Seattle’s Capitol Hill area.
His 1989 album “Symposium” won a gold medal. His real big break came with the 1992 album “Mack Daddy,” which featured the single “Baby Got Back.” Baby Got Back peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks in a row and sold 2.4 million singles in its first year, making it the second best-selling single in 1992 behind Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” single. Sir Mix even won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance for this song. Over the next few years, mixed jazz’s popularity declined. His next few albums received little label promotion or even a gold certification. Three years later, he formed a supergroup called “Subset” with another group, The Presidents of the United States of America. However, they ended up not officially releasing anything. In 2003, Sir Mix-a-Lot signed with the independent Artist Direct label for their 2003 album Daddy’s Home.
(Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images for Dick Clark Productions)
Did Mr Mix-a-Lot make $100 million from ‘Baby Got Back’?
In a 2014 interview, Sir Mix was asked how much “Baby’s Back” has earned over the years. Here’s Mix’s exact response:
“Baby is back” made a lot of money bro. I mean because, I believe, in the first place, why own your publication if you’re not willing to take advantage of it? The reason you own publishing is because as your career progresses, you can still monetize those tracks (#1 and #2) and you can continue to record music with integrity. So in other words, I can get into the studio, I’m working on a new record now, and I can care less about who bought it! Because I make money from publishing…so that’s the luxury of having publishing and, more importantly, using it properly. So, baby is back, and I think tens of millions of dollars will be low…it must have made over $100 million. “
So does that mean that Sir Mix-a-lot made $100 million from his most famous single? Do not. Is it possible that the song will bring in more than $100 million in gross revenue for Mix’s record label and anyone else who owns the rights? Yes. But keep in mind that royalties flow through many owners and rights holders.The way the royalties break down, even if Mix does have a master and the song generates $100 million in gross revenue, what Mix gets out of it would be $23 million most. In the worst case, it would be about $8 million. Both figures are before fees are paid to agents, managers, attorneys and production/marketing staff. Finally, it should also be noted that Baby Got Back is based on a sample of the band’s “Channel One” song “Technicolor”, so they’re sure to get a handsome royalty.
I reached out to a contact who works in the music publishing industry and he confirmed that the numbers we posted in the previous paragraph were within the most likely scenario. My contact explained: “Mix’s label, Universal Music Group (UMG), may have masters, which would entitle them to the majority of the record’s revenue. In order for Sir Mix-a-Lot to earn the kind of money he’s implying For that interview, he has to fully own the master, publish, and he has to pay Channel One a flat fee to license their samples. All three options are unlikely. Not impossible, but unlikely. But considering In the interview that Mix hinted at, he’s probably going to have a 50/50 split with UMG for publishing management. Assuming the $100 million figure is actually accurate, maybe he made up to $40 million from that song.
For a rough comparison of the influence of remixed jazz on “Baby Got Back,” we can look at Police’s song “Every Breath You Take.” Sting wrote and owns the original tracks separately from his bandmates. In 1997, Puff Daddy sampled Every Breath for his Notorious BIG tribute track “I’ll be Missing You”. Unfortunately for Papa, no one at Bad Boys wanted to get Sting’s license to sample 1983 hits for the updated 1997 remix. If Papa gets permission first, he may be asked to give Sting 25% of the publishing royalties for “I’ll Miss You.” By forgetting to ask for permission before the song was released, Sting was able to ask for and receive 100% of the publishing royalties on the remix. According to his own business manager, Sting still makes around $20-40 million from remixes as “Ill Be Missing You” went on to become the #1 selling single of all time. To this day, he earns an estimated $2,000 a day in royalties from his tracks. This equates to $730,000 per year.
