Of course, MC Hammer aficionados will know that the 54-year-old didn’t take his name from the hand tool, but was given it as a nickname by Hall of Fame baseball player Reggie Jackson while he was working at the Oakland A’s clubhouse as a kid.
In the decades since “U Can’t Touch This,” rap and hiphop has increasingly adopted the mores of the pop world and artists have evolved to embrace the sort of entertainment-driven approach that Hammer is often credited with pioneering. He cites his ability to see where trends are tracking and his innate sense of hustle as keys to why he’s still hard at work while many of his peers have been put out to pasture.