Song:U Can't Touch This
Album:Icon
MC Hammer's meteoric rise began with the 1990 surprise hit U Can't Touch This. But his fall was just as meteoric and he was mostly forgotten by the end of the decade. He was born Stanley Kirk Burrell Mar. 30, 1962 in Oakland, CA. His dad was a professional gambler. I think we all know the story about Oakland A's owner and screwy old man Charles Finley saw Burrell dance and hired him and his brother as clubhouse attendants. Finley lived in Chicago so Burrell's job was to give Finley play by play over the phone. Reggie Jackson nicknamed Burrell Hammer because he looked like baseball legend Hammerin' Hank Aaron. Finley made Burrell Executive Vice President. His main job was to snitch on players. Burrell wasn't good enough to be a pro baseball player. So after graduating high school, he was in the US Navy for three years trying to figure out what to do with his life. After his discharge, he formed the Christian rap group Holy Ghost Boys and they recorded with CCM singer Jon Gibson. Then he started his own label Bustin' Records and sold records out of his car. He was going to be successful until Capitol Records paid him $1.75M to sign with them. There were no hit singles from the 1988 album Let's Get It Started. But word of mouth was enough for the album to be certified 2XPlatinum. He recorded most of the 1990 album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em on his tour bus. He performed U Can't Touch This on The Arsenio Hall Show. Capitol did not release it as a single. That's why the record only reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Technically it wasn't Burrell's biggest hit. Of course it's his most memorable song. And as most know, the song samples liberally the Rick James classic Super Freak. James wasn't even credited at first but a lawsuit fixed that. The song was a huge worldwide hit and Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em was certified Diamond. There were two other top ten hits from the album, Have You Seen Her and Pray. And he had two more top ten hits from the 1991 album Too Legit To Quit, the title track and Addams Groove. And then he faded. All those hits are on this budget comp. There was criticism about Burrell's habit of sampling entire hooks as he did on You Can't Touch This. After Too Legit To Quit, Burrell signed a new deal with Giant Records. So he didn't release a new album until 1994 called The Funky Headhunter. The album did OK but not as well as previous albums. When his 1995 album Inside Out didn't sell, Giant dropped him. He signed with Death Row Records but none of his recordings were released. Since then Burrell has recorded occasionally but he's not catching lightning in a bottle anytime soon. Burrell has plenty of business interests outside music. So you may not see him much but he's doing something. Here's the video for U Can't Touch This by MC Hammer.
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