" I like big butts and I cannot lie." This phrase, coined by the incomparable Sir Mix-A-Lot in the early '90s, has become a lot more than just a song lyric. It has evolved into a cultural phenomenon. Since voluptuous stars like Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce and Jessica Alba have taken over Hollywood, it seems like having a "phat" ass is no longer a bad thing: big butts are must-have items.

But how did we get here? It seems like only yesterday women were desperate to sport the "heroine chic,” slender and sickly look made famous by the fashion industry. Many of these same women are now doing butt crunches, padding their jeans and even getting silicone implants to give them a plush posterior. And girls lucky enough to be blessed with the now coveted bubble butt have traded in their loose clothing, along with the ever-frumpy sweatshirt-around-the-waist look, otherwise known as the "butt blanket," for tight fitting jeans and skirts that show off their best ass-et.

Are J.Lo and Beyonce solely responsible for this cultural phenomenon? Some would say hip-hop has played a big part in changing the way the "big butt" is viewed in American culture. Songs like Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and Juvenile’s “Back That Ass Up” and even urban clothing lines such as Apple Bottoms celebrate the natural curves of voluptuous women. They also prove the point that when it comes to butts, bigger can be better.

“Hip-hop culture totally put the ass out there,” says Oakland resident Ruthie Price, 19. She admits she was sometimes teased as a child for her ample backside, but as an adult has learned to appreciate it. “I love my ass,” she says with a proud smile, adding “I think it’s an essential element to the female body. It compliments our figures.”

But bigger wasn’t always considered better. Around 1810, a woman named Sarah Baartman was taken from her home in South Africa and forced to join a freak show in England because of her unusually large buttocks and genitalia. Nicknamed the “Hottentot Venus,” Baartman was put on display and gawked at by patrons who not only found themselves superior to the “unusually” shaped woman; they actually thought of her as belonging to a different species of human.

Usha Iswaran, 21, says at times she is self-conscious about her “junk in the trunk,” but is generally proud of her curvaceous shape. “I like having some substance to fill out my jeans,” she says. “It makes me feel sexy.”

And many women are striving to achieve that “sexy,” curvy shape that makes women like Iswaran proud of their curves. Major lingerie chains such as Victoria’s Secret and Frederick’s of Hollywood now offer shape wear with padding, to give the appearance of a luscious backside. Several jean companies have even cut out the middle man, placing the padding right in the jeans.

Karen Jones is the creator and owner of Bubbles, a line of booty enhancing shape wear that can be worn underneath clothing. She says she created the line because she saw a market for women who wanted an easy way to better fill out their clothing. “When you put on a pair of jeans, the first thing you do is turn around and look at your butt. I thought about what a push-up bra did and wondered what that would do for the butt,” she says.

According to Jones, the line, which was introduced last year, has been doing very well. She even has clients who already have a big butt and want to make it look even bigger.

Those more serious about “plumping their rump” are even resorting to cosmetic surgery. The butt augmentation procedure, in which silicone implants are placed between the muscles of the buttocks, has become increasingly more popular. According to Charles Downey of cosmeticsurgery.com, there were 614 buttock augmentation procedures done in the US in 2002. By the following year, that number skyrocketed to nearly 4,000. The procedure can cost between $8,000 and $17,000, take several weeks of recovery time and some patients have to sit on a rubber doughnut for several weeks after surgery. Now that’s sexy.

If the recent wave of booty enhancing technology is any indication, the big butt is here to stay. So whether it’s natural, padded or surgically inflated, just remember to keep backin’ that ass up.