Songs

That One Time 2Pac Ghost Wrote For MC Hammer…

blame it on Meka February 24, 2016
mc-hammer-2pac-snoop

Most people only think of MC Hammer as the light-on-his-feet, parachute pants-rocking, cartoon-having, “U Can’t Touch This” rapper who shot to fame in the throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, only for his career to unravel due to bad business decisions, a shift in hip hop’s soundscape and a wealth of diss tracks. Some may know that he even tried to relaunch his career with 1994’s The Funky Headhunter, home of the infamous “banana hammock” video for “Pumps and a Bump…”

(I preferred the other version with Deion Sanders, for obvious reasons.)

But what some people don’t know is that, in an effort to resuscitate his career, Hammer signed with Death Row Records in 1995. Having a close friendship with 2Pac, Hammer planned to release an album, Too Tight, with the label, but after Pac’s death in 1996 the project would never see the light of day and Hammer would leave Death Row shortly after.

Now, and some 20 years later, the title track for the shelved Death Row album has surfaced, written and produced by 2Pac. His influence is very prevalent throughout the song, as MC Hammer’s delivery and cadence are culled from Pac’s unforgettable sound. It’s very dated (this song is circa 1995-96, after all), and it’s a high possibility that the song was unfinished. Still, it’s a rather fascinating look into what could have been for Hammer.