Time since last listen: about 28 years
I spent the small hours once again listening to a rap album from 1990 that I haven't listened to since I was a kid – in fact apart from its two biggest singles "U Can't Touch This" and "Pray", I haven't listened to any of the other 11 songs on here at all since then. As with the Vanilla Ice album I never actually owned this one (until two days ago), but some kid in my sister's class at school lent it to her and I taped a copy, although I can't say I listened to it much.
Speaking of Vanilla Ice, M.C. Hammer is the rapper he was most frequently compared to, or associated with. Both of them had rap singles that blew up the charts in 1990 and both had subsequent mega- selling albums, and fast-selling too. I think they may have toured together as well, to show off their considerable dancing skillz.
But I guess that's where the similarities stop – stylistically the two rappers are quite different. Upon listening to this album, Hammer also relies on an abundance of samples. Vanilla Ice and other rappers certainly utilize this structure as well, and I'm not knocking it, because a well-placed and well-integrated sample can create a memorable song. I hadn't heard of M.C. Hammer (real name Stanley Burrell) when "U Can't Touch This" hit the Australian charts in 1990, but it turned out he'd released two albums before this and was now in his late twenties, though he hadn't made much of an impact in Australia until now.
Right, let's get into it. I'll start with the cover. Mr. Burrell certainly presents himself as a clean-cut young man, with a neat suit, gold-framed specs, three chunky gold rings and a rather nice gold watch, with a square dial. It seems this wholesome image made Hammer somewhat a figure of mockery, being 'dissed' in the wake of his success by the likes of Digital Underground (who came from the same city as him), Ice Cube, and LL Cool J, but gained support from Ice-T. I'm not sure what Vanilla Ice thought of him, but perhaps there was some rivalry there.
Now to the music. "Here Comes The Hammer" starts the album, and it's not a great opener. Perhaps its title earned it the coveted track 1 position in the running order, but there's nothing particularly noteworthy about it. It was released as a single and made the lower reaches of the Australian Top 50, but the repetitive "oh-oh"s tended to grate a bit, as does the "make it smoooooooth" parts.
Next up of course is the massive "U Can't Touch This". Smash Hits informed me it relied on sampling a song called "Superfreak", which I had never heard. As with "Ice Ice Baby", no credit for this sample was originally given (it wasn't really the done thing back then) and only once Rick James was granted co-writing credit was the lawsuit for infringement of copyright dropped. The video introduced many people to such staples as the 'running man' dance, girls in bike shorts, 'breakin' it down', and the concept of 'Hammer time', but my takeaway was the piece of advice "Either work hard or ya might as well quit", probably the song's best line. I did enjoy the song being parodied by Weird Al Yankovic two years later as well.
"Have You Seen Her" was also released as a single and is pretty naff, but has some nice harmonies. It's a slow rap ballad though, and you probably can guess how I feel about those. It's also a cover version, with Hammer dropping new lyrics on it. "Yo!! Sweetness" is notable for its very '90s double-exclamation mark in the title, but on listening to it now I noticed it contains a reference to Hammer having a mobile phone. In 1990! That's impressive, dude.
"Help The Children" samples a Marvin Gaye track and is about a social issue, but the chorus is too long for my liking, and it's repeated too often. "On Your Face" doesn't have as good a backing track as "Yo!! Sweetness" (there really need to be more songs with "Yo" in the title...I kinda miss that. I know, I need to move on).
"Dancin' Machine" reminds me of Vanilla Ice's "Dancin'" because it samples the same Jackson 5 song. It's actually a cover. "Pray" is next, coming in at track 8, the second-best song. It might even be the best, but the overweening piety of that spoken-word bit at the end kind of irks me a bit. Sound-wise though it's strong, with a well-incorporated Prince sample and I just love that bit in the video where Hammer's stooging down the street in some grimy downtown area flanked by various 'hood types – he even intervenes in a dispute between two thugs at one point. Also, I thought the chant was "That's why we pray" but it turns out they're saying "That's word we pray". The rhythm of that chant bears similarities to the title being repeated in Faith No More's "We Care A Lot", a song I first heard in early 1991, but never made that connection at the time.
More social issues arrive in "Crime Story". Unlike the Vanilla Ice album, I don't think there are many lyrics about sexual prowess on this album, probably only in the following track "She's Soft And Wet". I think Hammer was just trying to get across various issues that black people in America have to deal with. Speaking of which, "Black Is Black" follows it, and do you know the title of the James Brown track sampled here? That's right, it's "Say It Loud – I'm Black And I'm Proud".
"Let's Go Deeper" and "Work This" close the album and aren't particularly worthy of mention apart from the "Work this, work this" chants which remind me of the whispered "Work it, work it" refrain of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Is Workin' It". There's a similarity of cadence there. That scream near the end of "Work This" is pretty ace though.
All in all it's a good album, and the production is decent, but I still kinda prefer To The Extreme to it (you can throw your rotten tomatoes at me later). And I have no idea why Hammer called this album Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. This phrase doesn't appear in any of the lyrics and I'm not sure what it even means. Maybe the man himself with the baggy pants is the only one who does, so if you're reading this Stanley Burrell (fat chance), let me know in the comments.
Get me outta here! That's word, we pray.
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