Videodrone #16: 2 Legit 2 Quit

Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

2 Legit 2 Quit (1991)

The early '90s were a wild time. While rock audiences were starting to embrace more alternative sounds, hip hop was making a huge move for the mainstream. Sure, artists like Public Enemy, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and N.W.A. were getting the critical praise, but it was performers like MC Hammer who were topping the charts.

As an 11-year-old in the early '70s, Stanley Burrell would set up in the Oakland Coliseum parking lot, selling stray baseballs and dancing along to a beatboxer. He was noticed by Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley, who hired Burrell as a batboy from 1973 to 1980, although Burrell later explained his brother was the actual batboy while he took calls and described game action to Finley, who lived in Chicago. He got the nickname Hammer because of his resemblance to baseball legend Hank "The Hammer" Aaron. 

After he graduated from high school, Burrell joined the Navy and served in Mountain View, California, as an aviation storekeeper for three years. He started a rap career in the mid-'80s, borrowing $20,000 each from former A's players Mike Davis and Dwayne Murphy to start his own independent record label, Bustin' Records. He sold records from his basement and car, with his first album Feel My Power released in 1986. 

Going by the handle MC Hammer, his songs started getting played in nightclubs in the San Francisco Bay area and then the radio. In 1988, he signed a deal with Capitol Records and then re-released his first album with additional songs and it sold over 2 million copies. He installed a mobile recording studio in the back of his tour bus and recorded much of his second album, Let's Get It Started, there. But it was his 1990 album Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em that made Hammer a household name. Relying on a sample from Rick James' "Super Freak," Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" was all over the radio and MTV, thanks to Hammer's dance moves and iconic "Hammer pants." The song hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album reached #1 for 21 weeks. Follow-up hits included "Have You Seen Her" and "Pray," which sampled Prince's "When Doves Cry" and Faith No More's "We Care a Lot."

Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em was the first hip hop album to earn diamond status, selling more than 18 million units to date. Sponsored by Pepsi, Hammer toured in Europe extensively in 1991. 

MC Hammer took full advantage of his popularity, placing songs on the soundtracks of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and Rocky V, appearing on two songs on Earth, Wind and Fire's 1990 album and signing other artists to his label. There was a Saturday morning cartoon called Hammerman and he was featured on lunchboxes, Mattel dolls and other merchandise.

There was backlash, of course. Hammer relied heavily on sampling entire hooks from other songs for his hit singles, and other artists like 3rd Bass, Digital Underground, LL Cool J and Ice Cube mocked his family-friendly image and simplistic lyrics.

How to follow this success up? Burrell dropped the "MC" from his stage name and then unleashed a nearly 15-minute video for the title track of his new album 2 Legit 2 Quit. The video was one of the most expensive ever made, costing $2.5 million (adjusting for inflation, that's over $6 million in 2026 dollars). It was directed by Rupert Wainwright, who had previously directed Hammer videos from the last album.

The video is epically ridiculous. It starts off with the most 1991 of celebrities, Jim--excuse me, James--Belushi as a newscaster reporting that Hammer is quitting the music business, followed by reaction from celebrities including Danny Glover, Henry Winkler, Freedom Williams of C&C Music Factory, David "Bud Bundy" Faustino, Barry Sobel, Ralph Tresvant, Mark and Donnie Wahlberg, Eazy-E and the Cubeless N.W.A., Tony Danza, Queen Latifah and Milli Vanilli. 

The video shows an impatient crowd waiting for Hammer to show up before cutting to Hammer meeting with James Brown. The Godfather of Soul had been in prison serving a six-year sentence for aggravated assault after leading police on a high-speed chase while high on PCP in 1988 and indeed, he was released the day video production was scheduled to start in February 1991. Hammer hired a private jet to pick up Brown and bring him to Los Angeles. Brown filmed his scenes and was supposed to fly back commercial, but he asked if he could use the jet to stop in Vegas for a few days and then go home to Atlanta. The jet ended up waiting for Brown for two extra days in Vegas, adding to the expense.

Back to the video: Brown, who apparently has supernatural powers, asks Hammer to bring him Michael Jackson's glove and blasts Hammer with energy to give him power. About 8 minutes into the video, Hammer shows up at the concert and begins the song with a cadre of backup singers and dancers. 

In addition to all this action, the video includes a ton of cameos from pro athletes and celebs, doing the "2 Legit 2 Quit" hand gesture that was expected to become all the rage. Wainwright sent a production crew all over the country to film anyone who would agree to participate. This list includes: Jose Canseco, Isiah Thomas, Kirby Puckett, Jerry Rice, Rickey Henderson, Deion Sanders, Andre Rison, Chris Mullin, Roger Clemens, Roger Craig, Ronnie Lott, Lynette Woodard, the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons cheerleaders, David Robinson and Falcons coach Jerry Glanville. Wayne Gretzky was reportedly filmed for this as well, but he's not in the videos that are posted on YouTube.

At the end of the performance, the video ends with "Michael Jackson" shown from behind after viewing Hammer's dancing and doing the "2 Legit 2 Quit" hand gesture.

The song hit #5 on the Hot 100 and the album went multi-platinum, but it only sold one third of Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em's sales. It was also featured in the Addams Family movie.

Things started going downhill for Hammer. He tried to adopt a more gangsta image on his next album, 1994's The Funky Headhunter, releasing a video for "Pumps and a Bump" that featured him in a Speedo (it was banned from MTV for, uh, revealing too much Hammer). But his overexposure, no pun intended, led to a drop in popularity and by 1996, he filed for bankruptcy. He has since released seven more albums, a reality show (because who hasn't by this point?) and still shows up in commercials. But in 1991, he was briefly on top of the world.