A Hit You Can't Ignore: Hammer Time

“U Can’t Touch This” was the giant hit song of the Summer of 1990. U could barely go anywhere or do anything without hearing the catchy rap overlaid onto the riff from a big hit song for Rick James from just nine years before.

The album that contained that song became the first album by a solo rapper to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on June 9, 1990 — 35 years ago Monday — and then stayed there for 21 nonconsecutive weeks, through November.

A Hit U Couldn't Ignore

Stanley Kirk Burrell was a member of the Holy Ghost Boys — a Christian rap group — in the early 1980s. He also spent several years as the ball boy for the Oakland A’s baseball team. Players felt he had a strong resemblance to home run king “Hammerin’ ” Hank Aaron, so they began to call him Hammer.

Hammer wanted to be a rapper — but one who didn’t rap about violence or demeaning women. Several A’s players pitched in to help him launch his solo career. Hammer put out a solo album in 1986, selling it out of the trunk of his car. It was enough to get the attention of Capitol Records. The label signed him to a recording contract but gave him a budget of only $10,000 to record his first major release. Hammer recorded the album in a studio made from a modified tour bus.

For “U Can’t Touch This,” Hammer sampled the catchy riff from Rick James’ 1981 hit single, “Super Freak.” James disliked the practice of sampling and usually turned down such requests. He later said his lawyers had given Capitol permission to sample his song. He would later sue for credit as a co-composer and additional royalties.

Capitol mailed 100,000 copies of “U Can’t Touch This” to young people, along with a letter pleading with them to request MTV play Hammer’s video. It became the network’s most-played single of the year.

Ironically, MTV hadn’t given much airplay to James’ “Super Freak,” nine years before.

The video featured Hammer, wearing impossibly large parachute pants and performing all sorts of dance moves with a team of backup dancers. This reportedly cost Hammer respect among the hip-hop community but it sure made for commercial success.

The single rose to just No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, but there was a reason for that: It was released only as a 12-inch vinyl single. No other formats — other than the album itself — were available.

Sales of the album took off. By August, “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em” was selling 100,000 copies a day. It passed 4 million copies in sales in less than six months.

The album hit No. 1 on June 9, 1990, but was replaced three weeks later by the New Kids on the Block. One week after that, however, Hammer’s album regained the top spot and stayed there for another 18 weeks. It was the longest No. 1 run for any album since Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in 1982 and 1983.

By the next summer, “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em” had sold 17 million copies worldwide. The album would be nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year — it was the first hip-hop album to be nominated for that honor. “U Can’t Touch This” won two Grammys: Best R&B Song and the first award given for Best Rap Solo Performance. He also won Best Music Video: Long Form” for a movie version of his album. The album also won eight American Music Awards.

Hammer's Chart History

The Other Three Singles From 'Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em', And Two Top-10 Singles From His Next Album

Have You Seen Her

Instead of sampling another song, Hammer simply chose to cover a song that had been a No. 3 hit for a group called the Chi-Lites in 1971. Backing vocals for this single — and also for “U Can’t Touch This” — were supplied by Special Generation, an R&B quintet that scored a No. 8 hit on the R&B chart that same year with “Love Just for Me.”

Pray

Hammer wasn’t subtle at all with his sampling of Prince’s “When Doves Cry” for this track. Not surprisingly at all, given its title, but Hammer espoused his Christian beliefs with this song. In the video, he excoriates a gambler, halts a drug deal and breaks up a street fight. Hammer was famous for enforcing strict morality rules on tour with his large group of stage dancers.

Here Comes The Hammer

The album’s fourth single was also an example of Hammer’s sampling — this time, the source was “Super Bad,” a 1970 R&B hit by James Brown. In addition, a band called Legend Seven claimed Hammer had taken his “Uh-oh” refrain from one of their songs and musician Kevin Abdullah filed a suit claiming Hammer had stolen the song’s hook and refrain from one of Abdullah’s songs.

2 Legit 2 Quit

Hammer reportedly spent $2.5 million filming the video for the title track of his next album. Capitol sold 3 million copies of the single, but album sales weren’t nearly as brisk as they had been for “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em.” Hammer’s extravagant spending finally caught up with him, forcing him to cancel a number of shows. He’d declare bankruptcy in 1996.

Addams Groove

A hot act like Hammer attracted offers to supply songs for movies such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Rocky V” and “The Addams Family.” Hammer’s song for the latter appeared on cassette and double-album vinyl versions of the “Too Legit to Quit” album but not on CD copies. Three months before this single was released, an animated Saturday morning TV show starring Hammer debuted on ABC.