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MC Hammer recently rolled through the station with his new album and a new look and a whole lot of confidence.. For many Hammer has been depicted in the news as someone who has foolishly > squandered all his millions and was all but washed up as an artist.. Such is not the case.. Hammer's new lp 'It's A Family Affair' is actually pretty phat.. It has all sorts of folks including 2Pac, Snoop Dog, Tha Dogg Pound, Mac Mall, Spice 1 and the Luniz to name a select few... His first single 'Can You Feel It' is coincidentally like a West Coast version of Wu-Tang Clan's 'Triumph'. I say that in the sense that you have an 8 minute song with about 10 Allstar rappers... The song is not bad... The other tracks we got to premiere have a funky.. soulful feel...that definitely had our heads boppin'.. One track entitled, City By The Bay may be grow to be a anthem type song for Oakland... So what's been happening with Hammer...? Well, for starters he's been doing a lot of film and television work.. He recently completed a movie in Canada and he just done a pilot for a sitcom.. He's currently enroute to doing some sort of talk show/ variety show... He's also apparently been working out, when he rolled through, it was quite obvious Hammer had been hittin' the weights.. He's also been continuing his life long passion of boxing.. A lot of folks don't know, that although he's never competed professionally or has no desire to, Hammer is a pretty good boxer and frequently puts on the gloves to spar.. In an exclusive interview he spoke on his involvement with Evander Holyfield. He explained how he hooked up Holyfield with veteran trainer Emanual Stewert who was very instrumental in helping Holyfield back on track which led to him beating Tyson.. He also explained how he handled a lot of the champs business affairs and helped get him a fair share of the purse.. Now upon hearing this, we had to get the full scoop on Hammer's bankruptcy status.. Hammer explained that a lot of what you've read has been blown completely out of proportion.. He still lives in the same 10 million dollar house in Fremont.. and he has no intentions of moving anytime soon..unless someone wants to buy the house off him.. He explained that his filing for bankruptcy was basically a way to get his finances in order and to stop all the frivolous lawsuits he had pending against him.. As a person who is visible and in the limelight one of the downsides is that people will attach your name to all types of lawsuits... Hammer noted that he was spending in access to 200 thousand a year to defend himself against things he wasn't he even directly involved in.. Hence it was best to file chapter 11 and start with a clean slate.. He noted that this is not an uncommon practice and in fact filing allows one to keep their assets as opposed to losing them.. He cited Donald Trump and a couple of others prominent business people who've done this... The bottom line.. is there maybe a whole lotta folks relishing in the fact that Hammer's 'broke'.. but trust me folks he ain't walking around penniless wondering where his next meal is coming from... He is and will continue to be a very shrewd business man... who makes calculated and well thought out business decisions.. When asked about his relationship to Death Row.. He explained that Suge Knight had approached him and asked him to consider signing.. Him and Suge have had a friendship for close to 10 years.. The strategy was for Death Row to soften it's hard-core image by having Hammer in the ranks... In addition Death Row knew that by having Hammer on board that there would be a lot of things he could access that other artists couldn't.. For example, Hammer still remains one of the few rap acts that has access to touring and performing in arena size venues... His articulateness and political savvy was something that folks were beginning to see and appreciate.. If you recall shortly before 2Pac's death, Hammer along with 2Pac and Snoop held a press conference to talk about how they were gonna start trying to influence their fan base to become more politically involved. Most notably they were gonna start campaigning against Prop 209 which would eliminate affirmative action.. As of now Hammer is not with Death Row, primarily because of all the legal problems the label is facing.... His records will be released independently on his own label... His lp will drop in July.. Keep a close eye out for a transcript of the hour long interview we did with Hammer.. He speaks very candidly about the whole East/West battle, his relationship to 2Pac.. and the current state of hip hop and how it's being exploited... All this should be posted up within the next couple of weeks.
6/1/97 |