★★★★★
In December, M.C. Hammer was named top rap artist of 1989 byBillboard. And last month, he won two American Music Awards, for Best Rap Artist and Best Rap Album. All that was for his first album. Now ? as he basks in his glory ? his second album is released. With the usual rap swagger, he calls it Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. But why should he hurt anyone? True, on stage ? and even vocally ? the man exudes menace...
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
Stanley Kirk Burrell holds a unique place in hip-hop history as the first rapper to go diamond - selling more than ten million copies of just one album. Many of today's best-selling and most well respected hip-hop artists have gone gold with ease and platinum several times over, yet that diamond has stayed just out of reach. Shawn Carter has never been higher than 6X platinum with "The Blueprint...
- rapreviews.com
2010-04-10
★★★★★
Loyal RapReviews.com readers are by now well familiar with my love of the bargain bin. Given the factthat both the compact disc and recorded hip-hop music date back 30 years, there's no shortage of plastic wafers to choose from. Now it's true that the popularity of the CD lagged a bit behind the popularity of the Sugarhill Gang, so vinyl and tapes still ruled the early 1980's, but by the latter part of the decade simultaneous release on cassette and CD was the rule...
- rapreviews.com
2010-04-10
★★★★★
In his third album, Too Legit to Quit, Hammer drops the"M.C." from his name ("It sounds more profound as just 'Hammer,"'says a spokeswoman), leads us onto the dance floor, and tries to savemankind, roughly in that order. "I have felt guilty about my success...I need to help my people," he writes in his liner notes. And so hedoes: The 16 songs here amount to a virtual self-help pamphlet,espousing discipline, self-respect, and a drugless existence...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Though M.C. Hammer's debut LP, Let's Get It Started, sold more than a million copies, it was a sixty-watt bulb in the rap meltdown, relying on worn soul riffs and endless ploys. If anything, Hammer's second LP is weaker than his first Lacking the tour de funk of last year's hit "Turn This Mother Out," the Hammer pounds out track-long steals of Rick James's "Super Freak" ("U Can't Touch This"), Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me" ("Help the Children") and even Faith No More's "We Care Alot" ("Pray")...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-02-27
★★★★★
If EPMD's surprise rise was a revelation, the unheralded progress of this Bay Area rapper up the black album chart is a story in the trades. With his stolid boasts, heavy beats, and circumspect samples, he sounds like D.M.C. gone solo, but he's also got a local base, some new jack steps, and a video. In short, he's a pro as in product--already.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-01-26
★★★★★
MC Hammer's debut effort established him as a hip-hop superstar, with energetic dance tracks under its pop-tinged choruses, highlighted by the single "Turn This Mutha Out."
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
With his third album, Too Legit to Quit, Hammer dropped the "MC" from his name, but didn't undergo any major changes musically. Indeed, Legit provided a heavy dose of the thing that made Please Hammer, Don't Hurt Em so successful: likeable, fun pop-rap that appealed to mainstream Top 40 audiences more than the hood. For a few years, Hammer almost seemed to be the Michael Jackson of rap...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
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