1. This Is the Way We Roll 2. Brothers Hang On 3. Too Legit to Quit 4. Living in a World Like This 5. Tell Me (Why Can't We Live Together) 6. Releasing Some Pressure 7. Find Yourself a Friend 8. Count It Off 9. Good to Go 10. Lovehold 11. Street Soldiers 12. Do Not Pass Me By 13. Gaining Momentum
Once again, I can't knock a man for doing his best Submitted on: 2007-07-17
Quite simply put, this is M.C Hammers best album, with a close second being his first album Too Legit to Quit. His second album, the one which blew up so big, "Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em", is actually the album I personally now find TOTALLY unlistenable and corny...this album is where M.C Hammer made another stab at really being a serious artist...while "Let's Get It Started" is really legitamate party rap ( no less so than Moe Dee, much of Kane's music at the time, LL, Run, Kid n Play ), this is the album Hammer made after concieving himself as a "major" artist. In that way it reminds me of what Diddy did last year with "Press Play"...it also reminds me of other hip hop albums like "Apocalypse 91", "Predator", "Wu Tang Forever" in which an artist makes a strong work that's pretty much disregarded by the hip hop community because of the perception of their past work and the attitude that they've "crossed over."
The cold and sad fact about the crabs in a basket mentality pervading hip hop journalism and critique is that any arist who's brilliant and at some time "disses" another artist for becoming commercial, must at some date in his career face that same fate. Ice Cube, who dissed Hammer in "Be True to the Game", was seen as going commercial when he did "We Be Clubbin"...the Wu Tang Clan who dissed several M.C's in an interlude on their Triumph album, find themselves with a dwindling black audience. No matter how gangsta or thug you may be, you're not exempt from the rule of "what goes up must come down", and M.C's become victims of the very same yard sticks of authenticity they promote in their youth...hip hop still hasn't learned to grow up...this is GROWN FOLKS BIZ YA"LL.
At the end of 1991 though, your boy wasn't thinking about that...all I was thinking was that 2 Legit 2 Quit was an album on the scale of which I had never heard from a rapper before.
Hammer leans heavily on live instrumentation on this album. I believe this is the last album in his partnership with Felton Pilate, who was a lead singer and multi instrumentalist with Con Funk Shun. Around this time Hammer actually began to use a multi peice live band in live shows and TV appearances. Actually Hammer innovated a thing that has become more popular in hip hop as of late, and that mainly comes from the Bay Area, which is creating origional tracks for your raps, which is how Steve Stoute and Pharrell operate. Also he was the first rapper I was personally exposed to with a band ( too young for Stetsasnic). The sound on many songs on the album is definetley late 80s/ early 90s R&B/Hip Hop...many drum beats swing like Teddy Riley's New Jack Swing sound, it's full of the Digital Roland and Yamaha Keyboards of the era. The traditional Hammer percussion is also in full effect. Overall it's more varied in tempo and mood than his other albums, less frantic, and the arrangements develop more.
The album is also embelleshed heavily with back ground vocals from the huge stable of singers Hammer had. From a more mature and holistic understanding of black music, you can hear Hammer trying to present a total musical picture, like Earth, Wind & Fire (whose horn section appears on the album), P-Funk, or a Quincy Jones album. Singing, rapping, ballads, social songs (which are in abundance), love...understanding that concept alone puts Hammer ahead of most artist of the last 20 years for me.
The album opener, "This is the Way We Roll" is a very funky cut with alot of nice guitar work from Felton Pilate, very innovative to hear rap at that time with funky guitar. "Brothers Hang On" interpolates the Temptations "Masterpiece" to great effect.
Lyrically Hammer actually improved here. Any one who tells you differently is obiviously a hater or never listened to the man closely. He totally abandons his shouting Run inspired rap style here, and it allows him to say more. His raps take 8 bars and up to deliver here, whereas his rhyme structures tended to be very short. The main theme of the song is community. The majority of the album consists of message songs, even "2 Legit 2 Quit" was a message song in the best black tradition of double entendre. He covers more lyrical ground than he had previously, rapping about being forced to hustle ("Living in a world like this), peace( "Why Can't we live together), enjoying working a job ("Good to Go"), God ("Do Not Pass Me By"), and he has a long spoken word piece called "Street Soldiers" which actually inspired and was the theme song for a very socially relevant talk radio program here in the Bay Area.
Hammers lyrical attitude in discussing social issues is very earnest and comes out of the civil rights movement. It lacks the ambivalence and agression of American culture since then. You know, unlike most rappers, Hammer will come out and say drug dealing is wrong. He also uses a moralistic tactic that M.C's like Ice T used to use, in that whenever he plays a crimminal character in his songs, that character always dies or meets defeat. May seem heavy handed, but it's sorely missed today, who in black music will stand up for the people!!
Overall it's Hammers best lyrical performance and the music is very good and origional with traces of Funk, Hip Hop, House, New Jack Swing and then contemporary R&B ( the Babyface school). The sounds used during that area and the drum programming grate on me a little, especially the keyboard sounds from that era, but the mix of live instruments, keyboards, samples and scratches was an innovative one for that time and should be studied now!
This album probably confused his mainstream fans and further aggravated his purist hip hop detractors. A story that many of his detractors would repeat themselves!!!!! But, that's what you get for standing up for what you believe in...and Hammer does that well here
The Album That Earned Hammer The Sellout Tag {2 Stars} Submitted on: 2007-01-26
I just wanted to start by making one point. If you defend this album by saying that it was a hit record or it has hit singles on it, you're actually doing it a disservice. Hit singles do not a good album make. Vanilla Ice had hits....his albums, for the most part, are terrible. So lets get past the number of hits and start looking for the quality, people.
MC Hammer is a special case. When I heard Hammer for the first time, I loved him (I was 11 or 12 at the time). He was fun, energetic, his voice was unique, and he could dance his butt off. But as I grew older and began to gain a better appreciation for good rap music, I began to look at Hammer as the symbol for all that was wrong with rap music. The flames were fanned by groups like 3rd Bass and A Tribe Called Quest (highly respected names in the rap world) that were openly bashing him nonstop. I was 14 years old when this album dropped and I was very impressionable when it came to the words of my favorite rappers. So if Q Tip or MC Serch said Hammer was wack, then I fell right in line with what they said with no questions asked.....and so did a whole lot of other people. Hammer didn't help matters any with his soft drink commercials, cartoons, by dropping MC from his moniker, or his sneaker ads. The mans face was everywhere. But unlike Vanilla Ice, the Prince to his Michael Jackson, Hammer had redeeming qualities. He didn't come off as goofy as Ice and he was spreading a positive message. Over the years, I've come to like Hammer again, but this particualr album just comes off way too cartoonish. It was almost as if he put all of his energy into everything but this album. There are a few tracks that are good for dancing to (Gaining Momentum, Too Legit To Quit, and This Is The Way We Roll), but they weren't enough to salvage things.
As far as flaws go, well, this is pretty much a pop album. At one point, MC Hammer himself said that he wasn't hip hop and that he would only refer to himself as an entertainer. As you can imagine, that rubbed a lot of the hip hop masses the wrong way. You can hear the effects of his train of thought all throughout the album. Corny beats? Check. Weak lyrics? Check. Radio friendly singles? Check. Lame, sing songy hooks? Check. Hammer should've spent more time penning lyrics instead of running around with Deion Sanders. Also, I couldn't stand him rolling his tongue in the middle of his words -- another change that came with this album. Highly, highly annoying.
Too Legit To Quit is pretty much a dance album. By hip hop standards, this album is a pretty much the definiton of what selling out is. Really, I have more respect for Hammer now than I did when this came out in '91. But this isn't his best effort at all. Really, this joint sounds more like an r&b album (which was TOTALLY unacceptable in the hardcore climate of hip hop back in '91. Despite two or three listenable tracks, I'd have to recommend passing on this album and picking up the singles if they're still out there to be had.
Standout Tracks: Gaining Momentum and Too Legit To Quit
Painfully unlistenable Submitted on: 2004-08-07
Man i found thiz album at a flea market and i thot i'd listen to it so my mom bought it for me and it sucked!!! The songs are so f***ing long it makes me sick and they seriously lack material. I don't know why everyone thinks this guy is so cool cuz he talks about the same s*** over and over and the choruses are waaaaaaay overplayed. DO NOT BUY THIS!! It wasn't even worth the 3 bucks i payed for it.
"PLEASE ,PLEASE HAMMER DON'T HURT EM""YEAH RIGHT HURT'EM ALL Submitted on: 1999-07-07
TO ALL THE HATERS OUT THERE. BACK UP AND LET THE BEST ENTERTAINER SINCE "MYSELF". TAKE HIS PLACE AT THE TOP OF THE HIP HOP WORLD'LET'S FACE IT THE BOY IS BBAADD. AND JUST LIKE HE BEEN AT THE TOP BEFORE HE WILL BE AT THE TOP AGAIN.SO LOOK OUT HE'S ABOUT TO STIR IT UP AGAIN HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. PEACE.
News... A bomb is in the place ....stop. This the most dangerous bomb of the century..stop. This Bomb is a bomb "H", "H" like "Hammer"...stop. You most be carefully ...stop. If you buy it you most know that you will dance during one century...stop. STOP ... HAMMER TIME !!!!!!! (lolo !!yep yep !!)
Once again, I can't knock a man for doing his best
The Album That Earned Hammer The Sellout Tag {2 Stars}
Painfully unlistenable
"PLEASE ,PLEASE HAMMER DON'T HURT EM""YEAH RIGHT HURT'EM ALL