Baby Bash

Baby Bash’s 1996 release “Suga Suga” catapulted him to success.  Why that is is anyone’s guess.  I challenge someone to come up with a 4 minute video that causes the viewer to dislike it’s subject more.

No one who has ever had sex with a woman or knows how to drive a car would make the hand motions Baby Bash does in this video.  It’s pretty clear by his mimicry of those two things that he has done neither.

I envision a scenario where a rag tag crew of interns from a community college in Florida are producing/directing.  There are creative differences right off the bat.  The tension filled shoot is descending into chaos and they only have 3 hours left of set time.  Then suddenly, in a career affirming moment, the assistant director seizes the directing cone from the director.  He yells “Yo, I don’t think tucking your arms to your chest and moving them up and down in a thrusting motion properly conveys your sexual prowess, we need more.  You should throw some hand driving motions in there to nail it home…really go for it.”  Then in a moment of genius – sheer and utter genius – Baby Bash improvs a move where he uses his thumbs to stretch out his chain while bouncing back and forth… and music video history is made.  With the creative juices flowing, they end up finishing the entire video in one take; a full two hours ahead of schedule.  This leaves time for an emotional wrap party where Baby Bash and his crew are all slapping hands and stowing their doo rags…when suddenly, Baby Bash looks blankly at the sky and softly says “We made it ‘yall” while he kisses a Jesus cross attached to his now famous chain.  Fast forward two hours and the party is wrapping down – Baby Bash is the last person to leave the building, but right before he leaves, he turns, canvasses the room and reaches back to turn the lights off as he exits.  Then the lights go down on the set forever.  Fade to black and you realize it wasn’t ever about any one of them, it was about them putting their differences aside and learning how to work together.

(Un)fortunately, Baby Bash could never quite repeat the success of “Suga Suga”.

So, where is Baby Bash now?

From Wikipedia:

After a failed stint on the latino rap scene, Bash allegedly had a child with an underage Mexican national.  It was reported that he paid the woman’s family an undisclosed sum to keep the matter private.  During the same time, he collaborated with several U.S. based underground regional dance crazes including the famous Louisville dance named “tha Shizz”.

In 2001, he launched his own male makeup and skincare line named “Lash by Bash”. Although the line was later pulled from mainstream stores due to weak sales, the line continued to be sold in bodegas and discount beauty shops in the Los Angeles area.

Financially crippled by child support constraints, he returned to rapping in 2006 and collaborated with such for sale rap acts as T-Pain and Pitbull.

In 2006, Baby Bash returned to his roots and the gay latino club circuit.  His tour received critical acclaim, primarily from alternative urban papers with words like “street” and “voice” in their titles.  He currently resides in the Aliso Village section of East Los Angeles and devotes much of his time to his charity which was set up to educate Non-English speaking Latinos in the gay and lesbian community to the dangers of HIV/AIDS.