MC Hammer's Ultimate Playlist

MC Hammer is nothing less than a pop-cultural legend, selling an astonishing 50m records, before branching out into TV, acting, and, well, anything else he fancied turning his hand to.

He stars in a new TV show, MC Hammer’s Big Shot Academy, which comes to our screens on Thursday 19th December at 9pm on ITV2. We spoke to the man himself to find out his Ultimate Playlist. Warning: there are some seriously big tunes on here.

Stop.

It's Hammertime.

(Had to be done)

Listen to the whole playlist on Spotify

____________________________________

FAVOURITE MOVIE SOUNDTRACK SONG

Super Fly - that soundtrack, the whole thing. It was produced by Curtis Mayfield, one of the greatest soundtracks ever done for a movie, and it captured the very essence of the movie...with songs like Freddie's Dead and, y'know, the title track, Superfly, and it was so well done, so that's my favourite.

FAVOURITE SONG FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD

Heartbreak Hotel by the Jackson 5. That was my high school year that one - it was my senior year in high school, and because it was a song by the Jacksons together.

FAVOURITE SAD SONG

Probably Marvin Gaye - What's Goin' On. Because the strings, the melody, the harmonies and the question that he was asking, when it all comes together - the way the song is written and delivered, it really captured the essence of what was happening with the Vietnam War that was going on, the civil rights era coming to a head, coming out of the 60s. Y'know '68, Martin Luther King was killed and you probably had four male figures from JFK to Robert Kennedy to Malcolm X to Medgar Evers - all these men were slain in the 60s, and there was a lot happening and right around the interval of that, around 72, Marvin Gaye posed the question to the world, based in America, with all these human situations happening, we need to question ourselves and ask, as a society, what's going on? And that song captured it all.

FAVOURITE CLUB ANTHEM

Favourite song to hear in a club...well I got so many, cos I'm a club guy - I'm a dancer - so that spans a lot of eras and a lot of years, so if I had to just pick one...that's a tough deal! I would take something from the 70s...just for the fun of it and the funk of it, I would take Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie. Have I done a lot of dancing to that? Oh yeah!

FAVOURITE WEDDING SONG

You gotta take a song that people know, that makes people wanna dance when they hear it, so it has to be a classic. So a classic from my era, to get the party started, a first wedding dance song...a James Brown song. Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine. Everybody be ready to dance with that, that's for sure!

FAVOURITE LYRIC FROM A SONG

Any lyric in the song Dear Mama by Tupac. That song...I think one of the lyrics in that song says that "even as a crack fiend mama, you always was my black queen". What he was saying was that he loved his mother, no matter what she went through. Coming from a son to a mother, that's a great statement.

FAVOURITE CURRENT SONG

I like the Daft Punk song, with Pharrell. Get Lucky - that's a great song. The melody and the chorus, Pharrell...the tone that Pharrell is using in that song, the groove, all of it - it's a great song. Am I a fan of Nile Rodgers? Of course - Nile Rodgers is a dear friend of mine, I love all of his work.

FAVOURITE SONG FROM YOUR OWN MUSIC

If I had to choose just one, it would probably be Let's Get It Started. Exactly what it says - it's a song meant to start the party, to take everybody to the dancefloor and bring the energy up - and that's what it did.

(Final Image: Rex)