SATURDAV, DECEMBER IS. -'990—xs
M.C. Hammer: Tough Singer,
Even Tougher Boss
Cooper Features
Rap star M.C. Hammer, in the
midst of a two-year, 66-city
world tour, makes no apologies
about well, putting the hammer
down on his staff and
entourage.
He has become one of the
richest black entertainers in
America, but he also become
one of the toughest bosses,
someumes unmercifully driving
his staff of 70 dancers,
musicians and aides.
Music criucs consider him to
be one of the toughest rock and
roll bosses since James Brown
was in his heyday and he forced
his staffers to ride buses and
stay in discount hotels while
James flew on a private jet and
lounged in the most luxurious
hotels. There have been other
tough rock and toll bosses, like
Diana Ross, Michael Jackson
and Ike Turner, but none may
be tougher than the Hammer.
Hammer’s staff travels first-
class — the group jets around
the counUT in a chartered 747
airliner but M.C. admits to
running a tight ship.
On both the Oprah Winfrey
Show and in an interview with
Rolling Stone magazine.
Hammer admitted that he
conducts bed checks of all his
young staffers every night they
are on the road. Almost all
members of the entourage must
return directly to their hotel
rooms afti'j each show and must
remain there for the rest of the
evening or they will be slapped
with a $100 fine. In addition
Hammer is said to have given
out fines for missing dance
steps on stage and failing tc
have luggage ready on ttave
days. And Hammer is said to
pay his employees only $100 a
week for travel expenses such
Pepsi-Cola Signs M.C.
Hammer For World
Concert Tour &
Commercials
NEW YORK — M.C.
Hammer, the triple platinum
pop performer, whose current
album, "Hammer Don’t Hurt
’Em," is the best selling album
of the year, has been signed by
Pepsi-Cola Company—to—a-
worldwide concert tour
sponsorship and to do radio and
television commercials.
The 27-year-performer, as
renowned for his rap music as
his high-energy dance routines,
appears in Pepsi-Cola television
and radio commercials
currently in national and local
markets.
The M.C, Hammer Tour is
carrying the talented young
singer throughout the U.S. this
year. Starting in early 1991, the
tour will move on to Europe,
Asia and to Australia.
"Pepsi-Cola Company has an
established tradition of signing
multi-talented performers who
are a step ahead of the times,"
said John Moorhead, Vice
President, Marketing Services,
Pepsi-Cola Co. "we’re pleased
that M.C. Hammer is
continuing that legacy with us."
Flamboyant and fleet-footed,
Hammer’s live stage production
has been hailed by critics as one
of the most exciting and
energetic performances on the
pop scene today.
A one-time ball boy for the
Oakland "A’s", Hammer was
discovered, when he was 11, by
former team owner Charles
Finley while doing James
Brown-type splits on the
stadium parking lot.
Today, Hammer heads up
"The Hammer Posse," a 30-
member troupe that includes a
When female elephants
fight, it is said, they usually
try to bite off each other's
tail.
as meals, laundry and
incidentals. On his recent tour,
Michael Jackson is said to have
paid $200 a week in per diems.
Hammer says he is tough
because he has to be, that it is
the only way he can keep
control of a huge traveling party
that includes 15 dancers, a
dozen background singers, eight
security men, seven musicians,
three valets and two DJs.
"We have a clean
organization, very disciplined,’'
tie said. "We try to keep our
organization disciplined
because we have goals, and in
live band, 10 backup singers
and 15 dancers, who have been
reported to practice six hours a
day and run three miles before
each rehearsal.
The King of Pop, aka, Stanley
Kirk Burrell, also serves as a
role model and spokesperson in
Pepsi-Cola’s 1990-91 national
School Assembly Program.
This is a multimedia
presentation that annually
reaches an estimated three
million youths with an anti-drug
and stay-in-school message.
"In addition to being an
exciting performer, M.C.
Hammer speaks a message
worth promoting: that our
society needs to focus its
.energies on nurturing and
educating our children,"
Moorehead said.
The M.C. Hammer deal marks
Pepsi-Cola’s second major
sponsorship coup this year with
a red-hot rap perforrtier. In
April, Madison Avenue
embraced rap music when Pepsi
premiered a national
commercial promoting its "Cool
Cans" that featured rap lyrics
written exclusively for the
Company by Grammy Award-
winner 'Young M.C..
order to achieve those goals we
must be disciplined. We don’t
put curfews on you to control
your life just curfews to help
save your life. Everybody is not
25 or 30 years old here. We’ve
got 18-year-otds, 19-year-oldr
who we feel very responsible
or."
Tfiere isn’t any question that
the Hammer’s formula is
working. His "Please HamF ei
Don’t Hurt ’Em" album w.
recorded for less than SlO.Oi.t.
but it has sold more thais
million copies, making it .
biggest-seiling rap album o*"
time, easily surpassing
Beastie Boys, "License to
hv more than 1 million COD’t,
M.C. HAMMER