"Posse on Broadway" by Sir Mix-a-Lot

Song#:  3747

Date:  12/17/1988

Debut:  97

Peak:  70

Weeks:  9

Genre:  Rap

Pop Bits:  Anthony Ray grew up in the Seattle area and latched on to the hip-hop scene in the early 80s. After high school, he began to DJ at parties and events and along the way met local radio DJ Nasty Nez and businessman Ed Locke. Together, the trio would form an indie record label called Nastymix. It gave Ray a chance to write and record his own music who by this point was going by his stage name Sir Mix-a-Lot. One of the first singles Sir did for the new label had the track "Square Dance Rap." It became locally popular and then picked up traction in some other cities. Then in '88, Sir started to prep a debut album. It would be titled Swass and its first single would be "Posse on Broadway." The indie single did fairly well getting to #44 R&B and #21 Dance. It even crossed over to the Pop chart where it peaked at #70. Another single, a rap/metal remake of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" featuring the band Metal Church would reach #17 on the Rap chart. That attention along with word of mouth pushed the album to #20 R&B and #82 Pop. By February of '89, the album would go gold. In the summer of '90, it would turn platinum. It was quite the win for Sir Mix-a-Lot and the indie Nastymix label.

ReduxReview:  This was definitely a cruisin' song about cruisin' around. While my small town didn't have a Broadway, we did have Michigan Ave. and that's were most of the younger crowd would go on Friday/Saturday nights. They'd cruise up n' down the Ave looking for friends, parties, pickups, etc. There was a shopping center parking lot at the far end of the Ave where people would gather to talk, drink, or whatever, but every now and then a cop car would enter the lot and everyone got in their cars and quickly left the lot...temporarily. This track reminds me of those days and it would have been great to have it playing while cruisin'. But it really didn't fit me and my white-bread set of friends in our power blue Maverick and Merry-Go-Round fashions killin' time out on the Ave.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  In '89, Sir Mix-a-Lot would release his second album Seminar. Two singles from it would make the Rap Top 10 with "Beepers" hitting #2. The album would be a gold seller. With two hot selling albums to his credit, Sir Mix-a-Lot attracted interest from larger labels. He ended up signing with Def American and would then record his third album 1992's Mack Daddy. It would feature Sir's biggest hit, the #1 Pop/#1 Dance/#7 Rap/#27 R&B double-platinum hit "Baby Got Back." The smash would send the album to #9 Pop/#19 R&B. It would become his second platinum-selling LP. The song would earn Sir a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. After making that major mainstream mark, Sir's career began to wane. His next two albums failed to sell and so with little support coming his way from Def American, he left the label. He would release on indie album later in 2003 and a few singles after that. However, thanks to the success of "Baby Got Back," Sir has been able to keep busy working with other artists, doing promotions, and making TV appearances such as headlining the 2018 DIY network special Sir Mix-a-Lot's House Remix.

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