HAMMERTIME!

I haven't thought about M.C. Hammer (born Stanley Kirk Burrell) in years. Yet today, I ran across an item in the news about his blog. My first thought was "Everybody thinks they can blog." My second thought was about the night I worked on a Hammer video in '96 or '97. This was a comeback video. A lengthy "narrative" about Hammer being tempted by and doing battle with Satan himself opened the video. Another editor was suppose to start cutting the video the next day. Hammer showed up at 6pm the night before expecting to work.

(One side note: Hammer's Hummer was parked curbside downstairs. This was before Hummer's became the emasculated version they are today. Also, this was soon after his much public bankruptcy.)

So there I was, drafted to work with Hammer for the night. I was just starting to cut and learning the ropes of dealing with a pushy client. My producer told him that I could only work till 10pm.

So we began.
Two of his "posse" - the oh so popular term at the time - sat behind us, silent on the couch. Hammer sat right next to me. We jumped in and banged out most of it by 10pm. At the stroke of the hour, Hammer placed a crisp $100 bill in the keyboard saying, "Dude, we are so close. Let's push on for one more hour." I smiled, pocketed the c-note and kept working. Hammer knew the video "wasn't all that", yet he worked hard to make it as good as it could be. At the stroke of 11pm Hammer placed another $100 bill in the keyboard saying, "Dude, we'll finish by midnight." I smiled and pocketed that c-note too. We did indeed finish by midnight.
He thanked me profusely and rumbled off into the night in that Hummer.

That was about ten years ago. Between then and now Hammer has been all over VH1 in: "I Love the '90s", "Behind the Music", "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs... Ever", and, of course, "The Surreal Life". He has emerged from bankruptcy, started a blog and helped out down in New Orleans.
God bless M.C. Hammer, $100 bills, and Blogs.
Go here for some HAMMERTIME!