Born Stanley Kirk Burrell, MC Hammer grew up with his mother and eight siblings in a small apartment in a rough neighborhood of Oakland, California.  His freetime was spent dancing, accompanied by his beatbox in the baseball coliseum parking lot.  Charles O. Finley, owner of the Oakland A's,

MC  Hammer

I make an active effort to remain a positive role model to kids. They need people to show them there's another way.

The Years Before Hammertime

Born Stanley Kirk Burrell, MC Hammer grew up with his mother and eight siblings in a small apartment in a rough neighborhood of Oakland, California.  His freetime was spent dancing, accompanied by his beatbox in the baseball coliseum parking lot.  Charles O. Finley, owner of the Oakland A's, saw him dancing one day, and was impressed.  He took him to a game and made  him an office assistant.

Burrell's first band was a Christian rap band called Holy Ghost Boy(s).  It was in a song called “This Wall” that he first referred to himself as MC Hammer.  During after this stint in his life, Hammer owned several production companies, including Oaktown Records and FullBlast.  Via these companies, Hammer produced a number of rap singles which were never released but are now available on the internet in the form of mp3 downloads.  Artists include Special Generation, Analise, James Greer, and Teabag.

The Height of Hammertime

Hammer's first studio album, Feel My Power, was released in 1987, followed by Let's Get it Started in 1988.  Let's Get it Started was his first album released through Capitol Records.  It included popular singles, including Pump it Up and Let's Get it Started.  The album went platinum, but Hammer was not satisfied.  He decided his next album would be more musical, and less rap-based.

Please Hammer, Don't Hurt Em was released in 1990, and he performed the famous single, U Can't Touch This and the now infamous accompanying dance for the first time on the Arsenio Hall Show prior to the release.  The album stayed at #1 for 21 weeks.  

Forever Hammertime

MC Hammer grossed $33 million from sales generated from Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em.  He invested $12 million into the building of his home in Fremont, California, invested in several very expensive movies, and funded Justin Lin for  the making of the movie, Better Luck Tomorrow. He was living large:  bringing in money and spending it just as quickly.  In 2002, he had been fronted $61,000 by Simon & Schuster to write a book about fatherhood; however, when he did not send a manuscript by the dealine, he was forced to return the money.

MC Hammer continued to make albums, through 2008.  He is famous for his bankruptcy, but he has successfully come back to a point of moderate success, and he remains in the public eye.  He continues to make appearances on talk shows, reality television, and variety shows.  He continues to produce, perform, and dance.  He remains involved in movie and television entertainment, as well as being a pastor and a husband and father.  

Did you know . . .

1. MC Hammer completed one tour of duty with the United States Navy.

2. Hammer took both parts of his stage name from his days as bat boy for the Oakland A's.  The team called him MC, for master of ceremonies, and one of the players called him Hammer because he looked like Hammerin' Hank Aaron.

3. Hammer voiced over his own Saturday Morning Cartoon, Hammerman.

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