Editing Sir Mix-a-Lot (section)

==Early life==
Anthony Ray was born on August 12, 1963, in [[Auburn, Washington]], and grew up in [[Central District, Seattle|Seattle's Central District]]. In Ray's youth, his mother worked as a licensed practical nurse at the King County Jail. Ray was a fan of [[hip hop]] and started rapping in the early 1980s.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.mtv.com/artists/sir-mix-a-lot/biography/| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013062848/http://www.mtv.com/artists/sir-mix-a-lot/biography/| url-status=dead| archive-date=October 13, 2012| title=Sir Mix-a-Lot Biography|website=Mtv.com| access-date=July 13, 2015}}</ref>

While living in the Bryant Manor apartments on 19th Ave and East Yesler Way, Anthony Ray started school at [[Roosevelt High School (Seattle)|Roosevelt High School]], near the University District, when the Seattle Public School District was in the throes of what would be a 21-year experiment to integrate the school system. Students were bused from their neighborhoods to schools at the other end of the city. From 1978 to 1999, when the busing program was in operation, minorities carried the burden of busing, going from the South End and the Central Area to predominantly white schools in the North End.<ref name="Busing Blues">{{cite web| url= http://kuow.org/post/busing-blues-when-seattle-sent-black-kids-white-north-end| title=Busing Blues|website=Kuow.org| access-date=January 2, 2018}}</ref>

Ray said he knew that some North End residents did not want black children bused into their neighborhoods. But for him, the experience offered respite from the projects. "I've heard things like, 'Forced integration is not good,' 'I want my kid to be able to go to school in our community; that's why we moved here' – all those things I totally understand," he said. "But from my perspective, I didn't have the luxury of living in a neighborhood where a good school was. We didn't make that kind of money. So from my perspective, it was the best thing that could have happened to me."<ref name="Busing Blues"/> A music teacher at Eckstein Middle School introduced Ray to the possibility of a music career.

Ray was interested in electronics and CB radio from a young age. One of his early jobs was working at a pinball arcade servicing machines, and during that time he started to fix keyboards and other musical equipment. He still works with electronics as a hobby.<ref>{{cite podcast |host=Bomani Jones|title=Sir Mix-A-Lot|website=ESPN|publisher=[[ESPN Radio]]|date=19 August 2018|time=12:24 |url=http://www.espn.com/espnradio/play/_/id/23862570 |access-date=19 August 2018}}</ref>