— Rozalla
In the summer of 1990 MC Hammer, aka Stanley Burrell, hit it big with a huge pop-rap tune while sporting ultra-baggy pants, a pair of glasses that he didn't really need and a goofy smile that gave away how delighted he was with his new found popularity. "U Can't Touch This" dominated the airwaves that year, even though Capitol Records conspired to hold down its single release in order to ensure stronger sales of the album Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, a practice that would soon become the (annoying) standard in North America's music scene. (For more information, check out Chris Molanphy's Hit Parade podcast episode "The Great War Against the Single Edition") It spent nearly half a year at the top of the US album charts and it did pretty well damn-near everywhere else too. No one would've thought so at the start of the year but a
A year later and he already seemed to be having a mid-life crisis. Trashed as a sell-out within the hip hop community, he toughened his image a bit, returning with "2 Legit 2 Quit" which everyone could see was a little too on-the-nose, while the title re-affirmed the suspicion that he had Prince-like pretensions in mind. Nevertheless, the re-branded Hammer was back and keen to show off his bona fides as a real ale rap star who wasn't just for ver kids. You know what would've been a clever move? Anything but doing the theme song to a family-friendly movie.
The Addams Family is one of those long-standing film/TV franchises which I've never had much to do with. I've never seen a re-run of the old television show from the sixties, I couldn't be bothered with either the 1991 cinematic remake nor its sequel two years later and I'm not particularly interested in checking out the recent Netflix series Wednesday. I do know they were ahead of the curve in reviving it as a movie in the nineties, a trend that would grow old very rapidly (with The Fugitive and Maverick being the two exceptions). Similarly, Hammer had a jump on cutesy rap numbers providing the theme song to pointless, unfunny so-called comedies. Damn, the nineties were pitiful, weren't they?
As Zimbabwean singer and guest reviewer Rozalla says, it makes for a refreshing change that Hammer's latest single isn't swamped in "anyone else's songs". That said, Burrell could've fitted a decent tune of his own around his raps if he wasn't going to rely on nicking other people's music. Meanwhile, he's more than happy to sample himself with "Addams Groove" closing out with repeated lines of "2 legit". Hammer is 2 Legit and so too are the Addams clan: I suppose if a cartoonish macabre horror family is to be considered credible than why not also a cartoonish hip hop star with a "message"?
Whatever charm "U Can't Touch This" had/has (it had little hope of appealing to me back then because (a) I didn't care much for hip hop beyond Dream Warriors and Monie Love and (b) it was impossible to avoid; nowadays I'd say that I don't hate it), Hammer's appeal had long since vanished by the time of "Addams Groove". The movie tie-in probably helped give him one more hit in the UK (American pictures would often have delayed release dates, giving their soundtracks the status as previews) but he was already done back in the States. Stanley
Burrell's duality would persist: he tried his hand as a gangsta rapper and he has also been ordained as a minister. He may have fancied himself as tough and street savy but the Hammer that sampled Rick James, used Faith No More melodies, pranced around in pyjama pants with suspenders, soundtracked a sixties TV revival and had a "message" was, for all his other ills, the much more Legit option.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
R.E.M.: "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)"
I like a lot of the acts reviewed in this issue but I'm not too crazy about what most of them chose to put out. As such, I've reluctantly chosen this classic single from R.E.M.'s patchy 1987 album Document. (I say "reluctantly" because I would've preferred to write about something current) Though Out of Time is a stronger album than Document, there's no question which of the two had the better selection of singles (for such a big album, it's a little odd that the big hits seemed to dry up after "Losing My Religion" and "Shiny Happy People"). Interested in an R.E.M. that has both 45's and the long player down? Well, they were soon to unleash one. Meanwhile, Rozalla loves this "happy song" which happens to be about the apocalypse. Hey, if you can't make the end of the world into an excuse for a jolly rave up then I don't know what to tell you.
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