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MC Hammer Named After Baseball Legend

Posted Thu Jun 4, 2009 1:45pm PDT by Billy Johnson, Jr. in Hip-Hop Media Training
If your knowledge of MC Hammer starts with his insanely popular song "U Can't Touch This" from his 10 times platinum album Please Hammer Don't Hurt ‘Em and ends with his then signature baggy, genie-like pants with the extended crotch, then you should catch Hammertime, his new A&E reality show which debuts June 14.

 

It is here that you'll get to meet Stanley Kirk Burrell, the real life persona of the ‘90s rap star who made $33 million, had a $12 million mansion and secured lucrative endorsement deals with KFC, Taco Bell and Pepsi before filing for bankruptcy.

Hammertime will follow Hammer, who lives in Oakland, California with his wife of 23 years. He has six children.

Ironically, it wasn't Burrell's rapping skills that got him the name MC Hammer. Long before he picked up a mic, the then 13-year-old kid from Oakland received the nickname from baseball legend Reggie Jackson.

Burrell earned a gig as the batboy for the Oakland A's after catching the attention of the team owner Charlie Finley who spotted the ambitious baseball fanatic dancing in front of the stadium for tips to buy game tickets. Jackson dubbed Burrell Hammer because he thought he resembled Hank Aaron.

Though Hammer hoped to become a professional baseball player, he joined the Navy. While enlisted, he continued to hone his rap skills which dated back to his days in the Christian group the Holy Ghost Boys. After an honorable discharge from the Navy, MC Hammer began pursuing full time a career in hip hop.

In 1987, he released his first album Feel My Power and sold 60,000 copies independently. The following year, after signing a recording deal with Capitol Records, MC Hammer updated the album and released it as Let's Get It Started.

It was his next album, 1990's Please Hammer Don't Hurt ‘Em, that made MC Hammer a household name.

He remained in the news over the years, releasing several subsequent albums though none achieved the success of Please Hammer Don't Hurt ‘Em. He caught flack with the 1994 record The Funky Headhunter. Then signed to Suge Knight and Dr. Dre's Death Row Records, The Funky Headhunter depicted Hammer as a gangsta rapper, an image that wasn't digestible considering his pop stature, shiny stage costumes and bubblegum raps. He became a preacher in the late ‘90s and appeared on other reality shows The Surreal Life and I Married...MC Hammer.

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347 Comments

1. __A_YAHOO_USER__ -
Interesting...if MC Hammer had any talent I'd check it out. But who cares?

Nobody touches MC Hammer, not because he says so, but because no one wants to...

2. Yahoo! Music User -
Oh my lord!! I wish that guy would just GO AWAY!

3. Shawn -
I think it's only a matter of time when they start bringing those "Hammer" genie pants back in style!

4. Yahoo! Music User -
$TOP!!!! HAMMER TIME!!! LOL

5. Abe L -
Hammer, hammer HA! Love it!

6. Shauna -
well, D33PPURPLE, he certaintly has enough talent to get you to read a thing about him and comment on it, doesn't he...

btw, i don't think he looks anything like Hank Aaron... but i do like Reggie Jackson! : )

7. Argh!!! -
Yo!

All y'all hatin' on Hammer - dissin' Hammer -

lol

Keep it up!!!

8. germaniw -
yo all yall nee to stop being haters
i know mr.burrell personally and he is hekkah nice
so back off yall hatin people with no lives
and for those who said nice things thatnks yall is kewl

9. lifevibe -
After all this time, he's still a Hammerhead

10. Doming -
his one of the hottest rapper in our time together with
vanilla ice

11. Aaron -
D33PPURPLE, HOW MUCH MONEY HAVE YOU MADE? WHERE DO YOU LIVE? WHAT TYPE OF TALENT DO YOU HAVE? I BET YOU STILL LIVE WITH YOUR PARENTS. WHY HATE ON PEOPLE? I JUST DON'T GET IT!!!!!!

12. Maureen -
Seeing his name and those Gawd awful pants certainly brings back memories! LOL! That was an interesting period of music and fashion.

13. Jon -
Best rap person ever!

14. The Realist -
Damn! Hammer sure did have some moves and all those sexy fly girls sure make the video easy to watch...

15. Nando -
C'mon--- Back in da day he was da man. No different when you here a throw back song. If it wasn't for Hammer things like the Soulja-Boy, Ricky Bobby, cha cha slide wouldn't exist today.He invented moves that people wouldn't even think of. He opened a whole new world to the woerd "Dance". Yeah he may have gotten a liitle bubble gum but his "Lets get is started" days were tight. He blew up the Jukebox on cable requested music. Leave the man alone.---"It's All Good"

16. KELV -
Amazing..people still hating on MC HAMMER after all these years. He demonstrated how to commercialize the Hip Hop craze and sold millions of albums by being a performer who rapped. There is a reason why the so called "hard core" rappers started putting pop rap on their albums and that reason was MC HAMMER.

17. __A_YAHOO_USER__ -
too many immature ppl, its l ike u guys got nothing better else to say.. so mature. like all musicians are or were so perfect

18. D.T. -
Yes Yes brings back memories for me too! I'm gonna check out his show. Hammer was just way ahead of his time. A true original in my book.

19. Yahoo! Music User -
who likes hammer lol wtf never even heard of em
all i ever heard about him was its hammer time lol

20. Nando -
If you don't know anything about Oatown's 3*5*7.....You have no business writing anything negative about MC Hammer. Grow up. Some would say WTF...Lil Wayne and rock. That's no different. Open your Minds and not your mouths.
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