Stanley “MC Hammer” Burrell

Burrell was adopted during his infancy by a night club manager, and a police department assistant in East Oakland. Growing up as a die hard Oakland A’s fan, Stanley would sell stray baseballs and dance outside of the stadium with hopes of making enough money for a ticket. Soon the young Stanley was viewed as a trademark for the stadium, and as a result Team Owner Charles O Finley hired the boy as a clubhouse assistant and the teams batboy. One day during some down time, future Hall of Fame player Reggie Jackson saw Burrell and gave him the nickname “Hammer” because of a striking resemblance with past slugger Hank Aaron.

By the mid 80’s after his time with A’s had come to an end, young Hammer began pursuing his career as a rapper. His first album was with a rap music group called Holy Ghost Boys that contained mostly Christian lyrics. Garnishing almost no commercial success with this group Hammer took a large risk and decided to stray off onto his own. With 20,000 dollars he borrowed from 2 former Oakland A’s players, Hammer started his own independent record label called Bust It Productions. Selling records out of the trunk of his car, Hammer’s music began to spread. His song “Let’s get it Started” became a local hit and sold just over 60,000 copies.

Soon after the popularity of “Let’s get it Started” Hammer’s name began to spread nationwide. His unforgettable dance moves and unique for the time “Hammer Pants” blew up his career at an astronomical pace. “Too Legit to Quit” and “You Can’t Touch This” became massive mainstream hits, and huge paychecks were soon to follow.

As his fame began to grow people from his past soon came out from every corner of his life. While supporting a good majority of his family and friends, Hammer’s record sales began to decline due to the Growing popularity of the Gangsta Rap movement. Soon there would be very little room for Hammer’s positive and optimistic rap lyrics. By 1996 Burrell was over 13 million dollars in debt, and decided to file Bankruptcy. To top things off, his previous collaborator Kevin Christian filed a law suit for 16 million dollars claiming (and Hammer would later admit to the charges) copyright infringement on the song, “oh oh, you got the shing.”

Although Hammer has since gotten back on his feet through various stand in and hosting gigs, his career has been unable to get anywhere close to the commercial success he enjoyed in the early 90’s. One thing that has been consistent throughout MC Hammer’s life has been his devotion to Christianity. Burrell is one of the few celebrities that have avoided divorce, as he has remained married to his first wife for nearly 26 years. He is currently an ordained minister, and has changed the original meaning of MC (master of Ceremonies) to a more relevant to his work acronym where MC stands for “Man of Christ.”