March 30 -- The best rapper EVAR!!!

March 30, 1962 marks the date of birth of one Stanley Kirk Burrell, a rapper who could be heralded using the right language as the best rapper ever invented…
How, you ask?

Well, if Jay-Z, and then Lil Wayne laid claims to being the “best rapper alive” based upon their popularity and sales figures, BOTH would be served a cold hard lesson when it is explained that NEITHER had an album remain #1 for 21 solid weeks or had an album go diamond – even approaching DOUBLE diamond with over 18 million sold to date.

Yes, the album marked the beginning of the end the first time hip hop started to die on us, what with the heavyhanded sample usages and poppy simple lyrics and dancing and shit, all of which made way for a certain Robert Van Winkle to step in and play Elvis to Hammer’s Chuck Berry.

[Phlip note – yeah, I said it!]

Any old ways….

Today marks the date that Hammer was born into the world, and you can take that how you want – positive or otherwise. While you can chide him for the music he made diluting the genre, you must also recognize him for lending it commercial viability as well. We can praise him for the dough he raked in doing it, or we can chide him for giving it away in the most coonish manner we’d seen at the time.

[Phlip note – and then Mike Tyson married Robin Givens]

With that said, we wish the man a happy born date, as all of us are born with at least a passing entitlement to.
happy birthday, Hammer, we just ask that you don’t dance for chicken ever again.