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The song received its debut live performance on a late 1989 episode of The Arsenio Hall Show. The lyrics describe the rapper as having "toured around the world, from London to the Bay" and as being "magic on the mic", which Hammer says combines with Rick James' "beat that you can't touch". It secured the Grammy Awards for Best R&B Song and Best Rap Solo Performance in 1991, a brand new category at the time. The song was a huge success chart wise: it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was also a big success in other parts of the world, peaking at #1 in Australia, the Netherlands and Sweden, and #3 on the UK singles chart. A 1990 compilation album of then-current chart hits was released in Australia by EMI under this title, which also featured the song as the first track. The German translation Halt! Hammerzeit is a known internet meme. Weird Al Yankovic's parody of the song, "I Can't Watch This", overlaid lyrics about bad TV watching over the song's music track. The song's lyrics and catchphrases became common pop culture references, making sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle appearances on TV, movies, and pop culture generally. "You can't touch this" and "Stop... Hammer time!" in particular, were widely used. Hammertime, from a lyric in the song, became the title of a reality show, featuring MC Hammer, on the A&E Network in the summer of 2009. During 2008, the song ranked as number 26 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop and number 16 on their list of 100 Greatest Songs of the '90s. The 2009 game Just Dance includes this song. A cover of the song was featured in the May 4, 2010 episode of Glee (TV series). |
