MC Hammer

Let’s Get It Started in 1988 established an energetic recording identity before the larger breakthrough. Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em in 1990 then brought U Can’t Touch This into much wider circulation. The track’s use of Rick James’s Super Freak is central to its recognition: the familiar instrumental material gives Hammer a springboard for a new vocal and performance setting.

The album has more than one mood. Have You Seen Her is an interpretation of existing material, while Pray gives another kind of repeated refrain a prominent role. The range helps explain how the record could work beyond a single especially memorable dance sequence.

Too Legit to Quit in 1991 continues the large-scale performance approach. The title track makes a short phrase into something that can be spoken, sung and answered through movement. Addams Groove belongs to the same period, linking the performer with a film setting and another immediately recognisable pop context. These recordings are easy to recall through images, but their construction deserves attention in its own right. The pauses and repeated cues tell the body where to move; the production keeps the central figure clear enough to survive a very busy performance. Hammer’s contribution to the period is audible in that practical relationship between record and stage. The spectacle grows from musical ideas that remain concise, direct and deliberately available to a whole room.