MC hammer

MC Hammer (2008)

MC Hammer , real name Stanley Kirk Burrell , (born March 30, 1962 in Oakland , California ) is an American rapper and preacher . His stage name changed from MC Hammer to Hammer and back again.

Life

MC Hammer became known in the early 1990s, among other things, for the fact that he embodied the image of a decent, Christian and unspectacular citizen, which is rather rare in hip-hop . He was accused of being deliberately built up by the music industry as an unsavory version of a rapper. Musically, he was criticized for producing very flat and catchy “tracks” that also depend crucially on the sampled hooklines of other musicians. One of his trademarks was his hammer pants and his dance style. Hammer's biggest hit, U Can't Touch This , which was released in May 1990, contained a melody sample from Rick James ' "Super Freak" and was similar in some passages to Falco's The Commissioner .

Burrell began his work with the Oakland Athletics baseball team , which is where he got his nickname. He had a plan to become a professional baseball player, but he had to give it up. After a few years in the US Navy , he released his first record Feel My Power in 1987 , which was a club success. After a contract with the major label Capitol Records , the company released the album again, with four additional songs and under the name Let's Get It Started, and sold more than three million pieces.

The next album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em , released in February 1990, earned him ten times platinum and also an international breakthrough. The record included U Can't Touch This , Have You Seen Her (cover version of the Chi-Lites ) and Pray , which contains a sample of Prince's classic When Doves Cry . The album was the first rap album in history to be awarded a diamond by the RIAA for sales of over ten million records . However, he earned even more with merchandise than with the LP : MC hammer dolls, bread containers, clothes and numerous other products were released, aimed primarily at children.

At the same time, however, the criticism grew. Ice Cube and 3rd Bass , among others, made fun of him in their videos. His fame began to decline rapidly. Too Legit to Quit (November 1991) was still successful in the charts and contained a hit, but could no longer match the success of Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em .

The next albums The Funky Headhunter and Inside Out were flops. A contract with the renowned Death Row Records label led to joint recordings with Tupac Shakur , but these were never officially released. In 1993 he contributed the opening theme to The Addams Family in Crazy Tradition with his song Addams Family Groove .

In December 1997, Hammer went bankrupt and had to declare his private bankrupt . His property was sold. Then Burrell became a believer. He started again to write lyrics and songs, which were now inspired by God , and now wrote Christian rap music.

In 2006 new songs were released, produced by hitmaker Scott Storch , which were musically adapted to the time, but were not very well known. MC Hammer was also active in the IT sector : in autumn 2011, at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, he presented a search engine called Wiredoo , which was supposed to take market share from the market leader Google through context-related functions .

Burrell currently works as a preacher and presenter on American television.

films and series

In 1991, the film studio DiC Entertainment released the animated series Hammerman , in which Burrell played the lead role. In this series he was able to transform himself into the eponymous superhero Hammerman using magical dancing shoes , who fought criminals and villains with rap music. The series had children and young people as its target group and should convey moral values ​​through its stories. At the end of each episode, the "real" Stanley Burrell was always to be seen, who once again summed up the moral core of the episode. In 1995, Hammer played the role of a drug lord in the US action thriller One Tough Bastard .

Parodies

In the contemporary television show In living Color , MC Hammer was once ridiculed for his strikingly bulky pants, which he flaunted in the music video for the track U Can't Touch This . In today's humorous parlance, such trousers are often reviled as "hammer pants". The English-speaking fan also encounters the corresponding idioms and gags in numerous popular US sitcoms (including Jim again and again ).

Discography

→ Main article : MC Hammer / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1988	Let's get it started	DE42 (11 weeks) DE	AT25 (2 weeks) AT	CH19 (6 weeks) CH	UK46 (2 weeks) UK	US30th × 2 Double platinum (80 weeks)US	First published: September 28, 1988 Sales: +2,000,000
1990	Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em	DE14th gold (52 weeks)DE	AT15th gold (11 weeks)AT	CH11 gold (21 weeks)CH	UK8th × 2 Double platinum (59 weeks)UK	US1 diamond (108 weeks)US	First published: February 20, 1990 Sales: + 18,000,000
1991	Too Legit to Quit	DE49 (15 weeks) DE	-	-	UK41 silver (6 weeks)UK	US2 × 3 Triple platinum (54 weeks)US	First published: October 21, 1991 Sales: + 3,060,000
1994	The Funky Headhunter	-	-	-	-	US12 platinum (25 weeks)US	First published: March 1, 1994 Sales: + 1,000,000
1995	Inside Out	-	-	-	-	US119 (3 weeks) US	First published: September 12, 1995

Web links

Commons : MC Hammer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• MC Hammer at laut.de
• MC Hammer at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.laut.de/MC-Hammer
2. ^ John Frenaye: MC Hammer At Six Flags . In: Events . Eye on Annapolis. September 8, 2009. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
3. ↑ Henrik Lerc: MC Hammer: Nobody was as cool as he , Stuttgarter Zeitung, March 29, 2012. Accessed April 29, 2014.
4. ↑ Billy Johnson, Jr .: MC Hammer Named After Baseball Legend . In: Hip-Hop Media Training . New.music.yahoo.com. June 4, 2009. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
5. ↑ Radio: MC Hammer, Sean Sherk, Dave "Pee Wee" Herman . MMAjunkie.com. September 17, 2010. Archived from the original on September 21, 2010. Retrieved on May 10, 2011.
6. ^ Hammertime - Meet the Family - A&E TV . Aetv.com. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
7. ↑ MC Hammer at Harrah's Lake Tahoe - and more Reno / tahoe Shows and Events . Harrahslaketahoe.com. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
8. ^ B-Sides: Groovin 'with the Addams Family . DreadCentral.com. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
9. ↑ MC Hammer Sells Mansion, Moves to Tracy / Rap star leaves Fremont hills for rental house - SFGate , Articles.sfgate.com. August 21, 1997. Retrieved May 10, 2011. 
10. ↑ Bankrupt MC Hammer Puts Home On The Market. - Free Online Library . Thefreelibrary.com. May 13, 1997. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
11. ^ New search engine from MC Hammer , accessed on October 21, 2011
12. ↑ MC Hammer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
13. ↑ New movie displays original view of Asian American films . The Daily Princetonian. May 9, 2003. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 31, 2010. 
14. ↑ MC Hammer: Biography . fandango.com. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
15. ↑ Richard Horgan: ?? Perseverance Leads to Better Luck Tomorrow . Filmstew.com. Retrieved March 31, 2010.
16. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
17. ↑ WW Sales: Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em