MC Hammer

Trivia

• Nickname came from his childhood resemblance to baseball legend, Hammerin' Hank Aaron. The Oakland Athletics called him "Little Hammer".
• Was a bat boy for the Oakland Athletics baseball team.
• Once sold records out of the trunk of his car.
• Claimed to have had 200 outfits.
• His album Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em went to #1, the first time ever for a rap recording to be #1 on the pop charts.
• In 1996 he filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Due to buying cars, races horses etc. Had to sell his mansion on the hill. Now he has resorted to being a reverend of a church.
• His 1990 hit song "U Can't Touch This" was ranked #88 on VH1's 100 Greatest Dance Songs.
• His album: 'Please Hammer don't hurt' sold over 10 million records in the US alone.
• Winner of the 1991 Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act.
• Ranked #44 on VH1's 50 Greatest Hip Hop Artists.

Quotes

• "What is really means is why didn't it happen to me? If your record crosses over to pop, and you get white listeners, Latin listeners, and listeners who are not black - you are called a "sellout." If *that* is a "sellout" then here I am. I'm a "sellout" because I want my music to be accepted by *all* people."
• "It's not a moment for any individual group, but an American moment. And it can only happen with the participation of many ethnicities throughout America saying this is what we want. I understood the progress that has been made as a people. It brought tears to my face."
• "In the end, it's only us. All of us. We have to help each other, we can stop the violence. It's going to be one step a time. But I seek all of your love and all of your prayers. And I'm asking blessings for everybody."
• "I really had genuinely brotherly love for Pac (Tupac Shakur). When I became a part of the Death Row family, he immediately ran into the studio and woke up the next morning. I had told him about a sang I wanted to do. It was off the Ohio players skin tight I wanted to called it too tight. Before I could get to the studio Tupac had gotten up early that morning went to the studio, called in the background singers, laid down the background, wrote a rap he wanted me to rap and it was done. He immedi
• "Some people call God, some people call Allah, I want to see the fruit of the love, I want to see the love, the love to help the brothers who may not be as fortunate as us."
• "I dress a certain way, and then people say, 'Oh, Hammer's a gangster.' I've never seen anyone gain gangster status from their clothes. Only in the suburban culture can you gain gangster status from what you wear."
• "I had a business where I did the untraditional thing. I reinvested in my community . . . more than any artist in the history of this business. I had 200 minorities on my payroll; $500,000 a month. I didn't talk black. I did black."
• "I don't have to sell it (his mansion), but it's the best thing to do. - 1997 SF Chronicle."
• "The word of God will make you sober real quick."
• "I always believe that the sky is the beginning of the limit."