March 30
Born Today:
MC Hammer
Stanley Burrell, aka MC Hammer (1962-) began as a self-taught dancer, performing as a youngster on the street and was hired by the Oakland A’s as a batboy from 1973-1980. It was the team that nicknamed him ‘Hammer’ for his resemblance to baseball great Hank Aaron. Burrell performed gospel rap locally and gathered a group of back-up dancers together and began releasing music in the late 1980s. Hammer’s breakout song, U Can’t Touch This (1990) catapulted him to pop-rap superstardom and he is best remembered for wearing blowsy ‘Hammer Pants’ and performing a sideways jittery dance move called the “Hammer Dance” or “The Typewriter”.
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Broadway Premiere: Applause in 1970 and Contact in 2000