SHORT TAKES : M.C. Hammer Rapping With Bat
- Share via
NEW YORK — M. C. Hammer, whose “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em” is the best-selling rap album ever, is also making hits outside the music business.
“I took batting practice with the Minnesota Twins, and they gave me a uniform and everything,” the rapper said in a recent interview. “The first pitch they threw to me and I socked it over the fence, about 370 feet.”
Baseball is where Hammer, literally, made his name. The Oakland native was born Stan Kirk Burrell but earned the nickname after working as a batboy for his hometown Athletics in the early 1970s.
“A lot of the players saw a striking resemblance between myself and Hank Aaron,” Hammer said of baseball’s all-time home run leader, nicknamed “The Hammer” and “Hammerin’ Hank.”
“They turned to me and started calling me ‘The Little Hammer.’ They took pictures and called us father and son look-alikes. The two hammers.”
“Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em” has sold more than 4 million copies and features the single “U Can’t Touch This.”
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
