M. C. Hammer: Biography from Answers.com

rap musician

Personal Information

Born Stanley Kirk Burrell March 30, 1963, in Oakland, California; son of a club manager and a police department assistant; married Stephanie; children: Akeiba, Sarah, Stanley Kirk.
Education: Graduated from high school in Oakland; took undergraduate classes in communications.
Military/Wartime Service: Three years in U.S. Navy.

Career

Worked for Oakland Athletics baseball team as bat boy as a young man; Rapper; formed record label, Bust It Records, mid-1980s; released debut single, "Ring Em," mid-1980s; signed with Capitol Records, 1988; released Feel My Power, retitled Let's Get It Started, 1989; Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em, 1990; Too Legit to Quit, 1991; The Funky Headhunters, 1994.

Life's Work

M.C. Hammer was one of rap music's biggest stars in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He did much to bring the music to a general American audience, and roosted atop Billboard magazine's sales charts for an impressive 21 weeks with his 1989 album, Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. Hammer's career later went into decline, and the financial and legal problems that dogged him testified to how fleeting fame could be in the fast-moving world of hip-hop. By the late 1990s, though, Hammer seemed to have stabilized himself and made himself ready to undertake new projects.

Hammer was born Stanley Kirk Burrell on March 30, 1963 in Oakland, California. His family was poor; the rapper recalled that six children were crammed into a three-bedroom housing project apartment. As a boy he often went to the nearby Oakland Coliseum to watch baseball's Oakland Athletics play, and an interest in music manifested itself in attempts to copy the dance styles of such flamboyant acts of the day as James Brown and the O'Jays. The youngster's energy and flair caught the attention of Athletics owner Charles Finley, who eventually hired the future rapper as a clubhouse helper and bat boy. Athletics players detected a resemblance to the home-run king "Hammerin' Hank" Aaron and bestowed on their new assistant the nickname "Hammer."

Graduating from high school in Oakland, Hammer tried but failed to win a place in a professional baseball organization. Discouraged by his studies in communications at a local college, he resisted the lure of Oakland's drug trade and enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving for three years and learning lessons that he would later apply to the musical organization he would head. Back in Oakland, he took notice of the rap music that was gaining popularity in the city's clubs and on the streets. He began rapping in small venues, and, with bigger plans on his mind, borrowed $20,000 from Athletics players Mike David and Dwayne Murphy to start his own label, Bust It Records, in the middle 1980s.

Hammer released a single, "Ring 'Em," and largely on the strength of tireless street marketing by Hammer and his wife Stephanie--whom Hammer met at a church revival meeting--it achieved considerable popularity at dance clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area. After another single, "Let's Get It Started," Hammer joined with an experienced producer, Felton Pilate, who had worked with the successful vocal group Con Funk Shun. The album that resulted, Feel My Power, likewise had notable success; its sales of 60,000 copies were more than respectable for a release by an unknown independent label. Heartened by his rising prospects, Hammer launched into seven-day-a-week rehearsals with the growing troupe of dancers, musicians, and backup vocalists he had hired.

It was Hammer's stage show, and his infectious stage presence, that led to his big break in 1988--performing in an Oakland club, he impressed a Capitol Records executive who "didn't know who he was, but knew he was somebody," as she was quoted as saying in the New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. "M.C. Hammer," as he was billing himself, took home a $750,000 advance and a multi-album contract, and it did not take long for Capitol to recoup its investment. Let's Get It Started, a revised version of Feel My Power, sold over two million copies.

Hammer used some of the proceeds from the album to install a rolling recording studio in the back of his tour bus, where he recorded much of his sophomore effort, Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. Released in 1990, this album catapulted M.C. Hammer to the top ranks of the American entertainment business. It sold over ten million copies, took up seemingly permanent residence at the top of the charts, and spawned the hit single "U Can't Touch This." Hammer became a fixture of the television airwaves, appearing in a Pepsi commercial and starring in his new children's animated series, Hammerman. There was even a Hammer doll. Flush with cash, he opened his own music management firm, established a children's foundation, and purchased a top-quality race horse, Lite Light. Early in 1992, Jet estimated that Hammer employed 200 people, with an annual payroll of $6.8 million. He purchased a $20 million mansion in the hills above San Francisco Bay.

Although some critics and hard-core rap aficionados deplored the album, the success of Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em was easy to understand. Hammer's showmanship and elaborate stage choreography, involving fifteen dancers, twelve backup singers, seven live musicians, and two disc jockeys, gave him a powerful visual appeal. Hammer was the first rap artist to put together a choreographed show of this type, and his visual flair attracted heavy airplay for his videos on MTV, a music-video network with a predominantly white viewership that before Hammer had aired little rap music.

On the musical side, Hammer understood the virtues of appealing to something familiar in a genre as new and fast-changing as rap: "U Can't Touch This" was closely based on the Rick James hit "Super Freak" of a decade before. In fact, James sued Hammer for infringement of copyright, but the suit was settled out of court when Hammer agreed to credit James as co-composer, effectively cutting James in on the millions of dollars the record was earning. Some critics complained of a lack of originality in Hammer's practices--Entertainment Weekly described "U Can't Touch This" as "shamelessly copp[ing] its propulsive riff from Rick James' 'Super Freak.'" But Hammer set the pattern, both musically and financially, for practices that became common in hip-hop music later in the 1990s in the hands of such platinum-selling performers as Puff Daddy and Will Smith.

Hammer's young empire began to collapse when his next album, 1991's Too Legit to Quit, failed to match the sales of its predecessor. Although three million copies were sold, the album could not sustain the massive world tour that Hammer had launched, and it was canceled midway through. Sales declined further with The Funky Headhunter, released in 1994, which unsuccessfully attempted to recast Hammer in the streetwise "gangsta rap" mold of the day. Hammer was sued by Pilate and by several of his former backers, and faced charges that performance troupe members endured an abusive, militaristic atmosphere. Also during this time, he signed with the infamous Death Row Records, but has since moved to another record label.

In April of 1996 Hammer hit bottom, filing for bankruptcy in a California court. His mansion was sold for a fraction of its former price. "My priorities were out of order," he told Ebony. "My priorities should have always been God, family, community, and then business," he continued. Instead, he went on, they had been "business, business, and business." Hammer spoke of his renewed commitment to God, and even appeared on gospel music's Stellar Music Awards show in 1997. In the same interview Hammer promised to unveil the "second leg" of his career, and by 1998 there were signs that he was making progress. He had appeared in two cable television movies, had completed a new album, Family Affair, and was said to be writing a book addressing the situation of African American men. Wherever the "second leg" of his career takes him, fans will enjoy the high-powered entertainment M.C. Hammer loves to provide.

Awards

Grammy award (with Rick James and Alonzo Miller), Best Rhythm and Blues Song, 1990 ("U Can't Touch This"); Grammy award for Best Rap Solo, 1990 ("U Can't Touch This"); Grammy for Best Music Video (Long Form), 1990 (Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em: The Movie).

Works

Selective Discography

Let's Get It Started, Capitol (revised version of Feel My Power), 1989.
Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, Capitol, 1990.
Too Legit to Quit, Capitol, 1991.
The Funky Headhunter, Giant, 1994.
V Inside Out, Giant, 1995.

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