Songoftheday4/29/19 - Boy stiggitty stiggity girls getting on my good nerves, looking like ice cream ready to be served...
from the album The Funky Headhunter (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7
Today's song of the day comes from rapper (MC) Hammer, who had dropped the honorific from his recording moniker for his third full-length album Too Legit To Quit, which spun off a pair of top ten pop hits with title track "2 Legit 2 Quit" and movie spin-off "Addams Groove". But with the extravagant costs of the two music videos for these, as well as the bank-busting tour behind the album, and whether or not he knew it Hammer was just too expensive for that sort of payback. Dropping his longtime business partner Fenton Pilate (which resulted in settled litigation) and signing to Giant Records, where he released his next record The Funky Headhunter. The lead single from the project would be "It's All Good", which tried to introduce another phrase like "Too Legit To Quit" to the conversation. After that, Hammer put out the booty-celebrating "Pumps and a Bump". Written by Hammer with producer Gerald Baillergeau along with a generous sample of George Clinton's "Atomic Dog", the track would return the rapper to the pop top-40 for one last time...
"Pumps and a Bump" became Hammer's sixth, and so far final, top-40 pop hit in May of 1994. The song also climbed to #21 on Billboard's R&B chart. The bouncy track even made the Dance Club Play list at #34. Internationally, the song hit #41 in New Zealand. Hammer's third offering from Funky Headhunter, "Don't Stop", made it to #63 on the R&B list, "bubbled under" the American Top-40 as well.
In 1995, Hammer released "Straight To My Feet" with football player Deion Sanders, and while it tanked completely in America, the single went to #57. But by the time Hammer returned with a second album from Giant Records, there was not much interest from the artist, and while Inside Out landed itself in the albums chart at #119, the biggest single from the set, "Goin' Up Yonder", stalled out at 38 on the R&B chart and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #101. Dropped yet again, he went indie, releasing one more record with Family Affair in 1998. He continues to tour and record.
(Click below to see the rest)
And here's Hammer (and Guy's Aaron Hall) performing "Pumps and a Bump" on Arsenio Hall...
and lastly, in concert in 2010...
Up tomorrow: Rock chick wants you to approach the sill.
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