Interesting Things Happen When Verizon Gives You Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Old Number

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If you’ve ever gotten a new phone line with a number that previously belonged to someone else, you know how annoying it can be to repeatedly tell callers that “No, this isn’t Carl. Yes, I’m sure I’m not him. No, I can’t pass him a message.” But when you get the former number of a ’90s rap superstar, the calls and texts are slightly more interesting.

The Seattle Times has the story of a local lawyer who has spent nearly four years fielding calls on a Verizon number that once belonged to a true Seattle legend: Sir Mix-A-Lot, the man whose music gave voice to big-booty lovers around the world.

The man says he got the number back in 2012 when he was in law school. That’s when he started getting unsolicited calls from luxury car dealers in the area asking him to test drive expensive Jaguars, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis.

There were also people pitching him their music and YouTube clips, pictures of bikini-clad women in suggestive poses.

And let’s not forget promoters offering free concert tickets and backstage passes. Those would be easy to take advantage of; just accept them and then show up claiming to be Mix’s agent or manager, right? But the lawyer says, in spite of being egged on to cash in on the confusion, making that sort of false representation would get him in trouble with the bar association.

One August afternoon, he finally figured out just who all these messages were meant for. There were a ton of “Happy Birthday” notes and calls — including some from those scantily clad ladies — and references to “Baby Got Back,” the Sir’s 1992 ode to the gluteus maximus.

A bit of Googling showed that it was Mr. Mix-A-Lot’s birthday, which suddenly made all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

When reached by the Times about the story of Not Sir Mix-A-Lot, the rapper seemed both amused by the news and sorry for the guy who’s had to deal with the deluge of incorrectly sent messages.

In terms of advice, the rapper (real name Anthony Ray), tells the owner of his old number, “Don’t check any text messages in front of your wife.” And as for all those car dealerships texting the lawyer for a test drive, Mix says to not “answer any texts by saying ‘Yes,’ because people take ‘Yes’ differently with me. And usually you end up opening your wallet.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist