Artist: MC Hammer
Genre(s):
Hip-Hop
Discography:
Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em
Year: 1990
Tracks: 13
There had been hit belt singles and albums before him, only MC Hammer was the adult male wHO sincerely brought whang music to a mass pop audience. Armed with a flamboyant wardrobe (in particular his trademark sloppy chute drawers) and a raft of sampled meat hooks upraised straight from their sources, Hammer's talents as a dancer and showman far exceeded his technique as an MC. Still, he had an ear for catchy source material, and that helped his second gear record album, Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, become the best-selling rap album of all time. Even if he was ne'er capable to duplicate that level of success, and even if his street credibleness was near nonexistent, Hammer noneffervescent bust downward legion doors for blame music in the mainstream, demonstrating that hip-hop had the potential difference for megahit success in the marketplace.
MC Hammer was born Stanley Kirk Burrell in Oakland, CA, on March 30, 1962. A penis of a strongly religious family, he landed a line as a bat/ball son for the Oakland Athletics baseball game team, where he amused fans by dance during breaks in the game, and earned the cognomen "Hammer" for his resemblance to all-time home run loss leader "Hammerin'" Hank Aaron. An aspirant baseball player himself, he failed to get on with a professional organization undermentioned high school, and enlisted in the Navy for trio years. Long a fan of funk and soulfulness, he became interested in hip-hop upon reverting to civilian life, and began acting in local clubs; with the fiscal help of several Athletics players, he also started his own record mark, Bust It, and recorded a couple of popular local singles. With ex-Con Funk Shun originator Felton Pilate producing, Hammer recorded an album coroneted Feel My Power in 1987. After impressing a Capitol Records executive with his already refine live designate, he was signed to a multi-album deal, the first of which was a revamped version of Find My Power retitled Let's Get It Started. Producing an R&B hit in "Plow This Mutha Out," Let's Get It Started went double platinum.
Noneffervescent, nil could have foreshadowed the phenomenon of Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, the 1990-released followup. Its first-class honours degree single, "U Can't Touch This," blatantly copped nigh of its hooks from Rick James' funk classic "Super Freak," nevertheless Hammer's added hitch phrases (and loretta Young listeners' strangeness with the original song) helped make it a smash up. "U Can't Touch This" dominated wireless and MTV during 1990 in a way few tap singles e'er had, and north Korean won deuce Grammys (C. H. Best R&B Song, Best Solo Rap Performance); write for a crotchet in its freeing initialize -- it was merely available as a 12", which cut down on its sales -- it would easily take been the first-class honours degree rap single to top the Billboard pop chart. The next deuce singles, "Take in You Seen Her" (a flat out cover of the Chi-Lites' '70s mortal lay) and "Pray" (reinforced on the keyboard swipe from Prince's "When Doves Cry"), followed "U Can't Touch This" into the Top Ten, eventually push gross revenue of Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em past the ten-million mark and making it the number one record album of the yr. Still, a backlash was maturation against Hammer's frequent borrowing (some aforesaid stealing) of classic maulers for his possess hits; hip-hop purists besides railed around his frequently simplistic, repetitive lyrics (so, "Pray" set a unexampled record for the number of times its title was perennial during the birdcall, at well over century). The charges of rank mercantilism weren't vitiated by the selling machine that shortly kicked in: endorsement deals, MC Hammer dolls, even a Saturday dawn cartoon prove.
Seeking to countercheck the critique, Hammer dropped the "MC" from his name and used more live instrumentation on his 1991 followup album, Also Legit to Quit. While it sold very well (over three-million copies) and produced a respectable hit in the title cartroad, Hammer's stage indicate had become as plushy as his life style; loaded with singers, dancers, and accompaniment musicians, the supporting concert tour was too expensive for the album's sales to finance, and it was canceled partway through and through. Hammer scored his last self-aggrandising impinge on with "Addams Groove," the subject to the celluloid adaptation of The Addams Family, and then paused to reconsider his access. In 1994, he returned with The Funky Headhunter, a harder-edged, more aggressive record that went gold, but failed to gain ground him a novel audience among hardcore hip-hop fans. On 1995's Inside Out, Hammer seemed uncertain of whether he wanted to appeal to pop or tap audiences; the record album flopped, and Hammer was let out of his squeeze. In 1996, Hammer filed for bankruptcy, his taste for opulence having gotten the better of his dwindling income; his sign was sold at a fraction of its cost. The crisis prompted a religious reawakening, and he began to spell fresh material with an emphasis on church property and family unit. The album Syndicate Affair was slated for release on Hammer's own Oaktown 3.5.7. label, only plans were aborted at the last minute; only grand copies were pressed, and were never distributed nationally, save for limited Internet downloads. Several projects were rumored to be in the works, including another album (State of war Chest: Turn of the Century) and a soundtrack to the celluloid Return to Glory: The Powerful Stirring of the Black Man, but none ever appeared. Finally, Hammer released a modern album, the patriotic-themed Active Duty, through his possess WorldHit label in late 2001.
