Blake Lively's 'Oakland booty' post booed
Fox 411: Was actress being racially insensitive, or just having fun?
Sir Mix-a-Lot’s got Blake Lively's back.
Days after the actress created an Internet firestorm for referencing the rapper’s lyrics to “Baby Got Back” in an Instagram post, the 52-year-old artist felt that Lively was recognizing the evolving standards of beauty.
“For her to look at her butt and that little waist and to say, ‘L.A. face with an Oakland booty,’ doesn’t mean that the norm has changed, that the beautiful people have accepted our idea of beautiful? That’s the way I took it,” Sir Mix-a-Lot shared with Pret-a-Reporter.
While online critics were quick to slam Lively, 28, for using the lyric in a racially insensitive manner, the musician doesn’t see it that way.
“Now let me do this, as far as the critics are concerned: I don’t want to come off like, ‘Oh, he’s an Uncle Tom,’ because I’m not,” Sir Mix-a-Lot explained. “If what Blake Lively meant by that comment was, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve gained weight, I look horrible,’ if that’s what she meant — and I doubt that she did — then I’m with the critics.
“But no one in the world is gonna tell me that a woman wears that dress is thinking that she’s fat. No, I’m sorry, it just doesn’t happen. It sounds like to me like she was giving the line props.”
Sir Mix-a-Lot also noted that this incident opens the door for a much larger conversation.
“I think she’s saying, ‘I’ve got that Oakland booty,’ or ‘I’m trying to get it.’ I think we have to be careful what we wish for as African-Americans, because if you say she doesn’t have the right to say that, then how do you expect her at the same time to embrace your beauty? I mean, I don’t get it,” Sir Mix-a-Lot said. “I think it’s almost a nod of approval, and that was what I wanted. I wanted our idea of beautiful to be accepted.
“That’s my thing. I’m not telling people what they can like and not like. That song was written with African-American women in mind, but trust me when I tell you that there are women out there with those curves everywhere, and they were once considered fat. And that’s what the song was about. It wasn’t about some race battle,” he added.
This article originally appeared in the New York Post's Page Six.
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