MC Hammer

There are few songs in the rap canon as massive—or as inextricably tied to a time and place—as “U Can’t Touch This,” MC Hammer’s infectious, Rick James-sampling hit that took over the world in 1990. But beyond the Platinum plaques (and the pair of Grammy Awards it secured in 1991), its creator’s career offers a unique lens onto the way hip-hop evolved over the course of the 1980s and ’90s. Born Stanley Burrell in 1962 in Oakland, Hammer began performing as a child, dancing and selling baseballs outside Athletics games. (He caught the eye of team employees and eventually became a batboy.) By the release of “U Can’t Touch This” and his blockbuster third album, Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em, he was an expert live performer, his shows filled with elaborate choreography and stage design. But as the decade wore on, Hammer adapted, most notably on 1994’s harder-edged The Funky Headhunter, an album rooted in the Bay Area’s tradition of merging the kinetic with the sociopolitical.