YMMV / MC Hammer

• Adaptation Displacement: The only reason many younger people ever heard of Rick James' "Super Freak" was because of the lawsuit Rick James filed against MC Hammer for the use of the song's Epic Riff.
• Audience-Alienating Era: The Funky Headhunter, in which Hammer responded to the many shots taken at him by the newly-popular Gangsta Rap school by basically saying, "Hey, I'm down with this Darker and Edgier thing, too!" While it sold at first, it didn't impress the gangsta crowd one bit, and his fans who did buy it were completely turned off by the usually family-friendly rapper's darker turn. This resulted in an album that appealed to no one, and is considered one of the key factors of his career's demise.
• Awesome Music: "U Can't Touch This".
  • "2 Legit 2 Quit" as well.
• Memetic Mutation: "Stop! Hammer Time!" Over time, this meme went from being spoken to being seen, as Stop signs can still be seen to this day with "HAMMER TIME" stamped on there either as graffiti, as an embossing or as a bumper sticker.
• Misattributed Song: He never recorded a song titled "I Like Big Butts". You're looking for "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot. Hammer eventually did his own buttocks-themed song with "Pumps and a Bump" on The Funky Headhunter.
• Narm Charm: People generally agree that MC Hammer's music is mediocre, repetitive, and just plain cheesy. However, he delivers it with such passion and energy that he's still found to be entertaining nonetheless.
• Padding: In addition to the constant sampling as opposed to rapping to original beats, the other criticism laid heavily on Hammer was the constant repetition of his songs' choruses. This usually happened as his music videos were very long, and the album versions usually matched that length as opposed to being trimmed. This is exceptionally noticeable in "2 Legit 2 Quit", in which the chorus of "Too legit, too legit to quit" is played over the final two and a half minutes of the song without any lyrics from Hammer; this is fine in the music video, where there was a ton of athlete cameos popping up in the meantime, but it can drone on for someone listening to the single on its own.
• Sampled Up: Most of Hammer's songs relied on what could be charitably described as less than creative sampling choices. These included:
  • "U Can't Touch This" sampled the main riff from "Super Freak" by Rick James. At least James got some of the moola.
  • Prince's "When Doves Cry" for "Pray" and "Soft and Wet" for "She's Soft and Wet", The Chi-Lites' "Have You Seen Her?" for "Have You Seen Her?", The Jackson 5's "Dancing Machine" for "Dancin' Machine", Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" for "Help the Children" (Ah-ha! You expected "Save the Children", didn't you?) and George Clinton's oft-sampled "Atomic Dog" for "Pumps and a Bump". No word on whether they got their own moola, though.
• Signature Song: "U Can't Touch This," although "Too Legit" is fondly remembered by fans as well. The latter is still played at every Oakland A's home game, complete with the hand gestures displayed on the scoreboard.
• Vindicated by History: An odd variation with The Funky Headhunter, which sold well at the time but got Hammer laughed out of the rap game for good. Nowadays, while still considered sub-par by Gangsta Rap standards by virtue of not at all being very gangsta, it's been re-evaluated as still a decent '90s pop/hip-hop album, arguably featuring Hammer at his most technically competent in terms of songwriting.

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