Stanley Kirk Berell

Musician, author of the world hit U Can't Touch This MC Hammer (MC Hammer) is considered the founder of modern mainstream rap. He stood at the origins of this genre and went a difficult path from tremendous success in his youth to oblivion and financial collapse in his mature years, but failures did not break the singer - he took all the blows of fate and from a cheeky rapper who wasted money and bathed in glory, he turned into a Christian preacher.

The musician's real name is Stanley Kirk Berell. He was born on March 30, 1962 in Oakland, California, into a believing family. The parents were members of the Pentecostal Church and regularly took their son with them to church services.

The nickname Hammer - "hammer" - was given to him by his baseball teammates in honor of the player Hank Aaron, whom he looked very much like. Young Stanley really wanted to play on the field, but the team was already completed, and he got only a place among the technical staff - the boy watched the state of bats and other sports equipment.

Stanley was deeply imbued with the faith of his parents and decided to found the first musical group precisely in order to convey the gospel truths to street youth. The band took the name The Holy Ghost Boys, which means “Boys of the Holy Spirit”, and began performing compositions in the R'n'B style. Together, the young people recorded the song Son of the King, which later became a hit.

Despite the well-coordinated work in the group, MC Hammer soon began to dream of a solo career. In 1987, he split from like-minded people to record the album Feel My Power. The disc was published by Felton Pilate Producing with a circulation of 60 thousand copies, for which Sten had to borrow $ 20 thousand from friends. The musician sold the recordings on his own, distributing them among friends, offering them at concerts or even on the street from his car.

After his debut, the young rapper attracted the attention of producers. They appreciated the quality of the songs and his energetic, incendiary performances in public, and already in 1988 the performer was offered a Capitol Records contract. Together with this label, MC Hammer reissued the first album, changing its name to Let's Get It Started, and the disc sold 3 million copies.

In 1990, the rapper became the owner of a diamond disc - a symbol that the number of his albums sold reached 10 million. Colleagues in the music shop disapproved of this and even ridiculed him - in those years, rap culture was considered by many to be a "low" street genre.

The first resounding success was the beginning of a great career. After 2 years, MC Hammer released a new work Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em, which became the best-selling album in the history of rap. The songs from it topped the Billboard chart and brought the musician 3 Grammy awards. Later, the singer also won 2 MTY awards and 7 awards from the USA Music Association.

It was in this album that his main hits first appeared - U Can't Touch This and Pray, which to this day can be heard on radio and TV both in their original performance and in the form of numerous remixes (for example, in 2018, the composition U Can 't Touch This was performed by Sultan and Ned Shepard).

All tickets for the rapper's concerts were sold out, as soon as they went on sale, the halls were packed to capacity with the public. In 1995, the musician made his debut as an actor, playing in the film One Tough Bastard as a drug dealer, and subsequently played 4 more similar characters in other films.

In his youth, Sten promised that he would devote his work to God. However, over time, his departure from religion and the church became apparent. MC Hammer began to earn a lot of money, and not only luxury, but also vices - addiction to drugs and alcohol - came into his life.

His next album, Too legit to quit, sold 3 million copies. The figure seems to be rather big, but given the previous success, this was an obvious decline. In 1992, the musician got into a lawsuit with Kevin Christian over copyright issues, which eventually led to a change in the record company. He dropped the letters MC from the stage name and decided to experiment.

In the next album, Funky Headhunter, the musician's style became harder and harder. The video for the song Pumps and a Bump was removed from the MTV rotation, considering it obscene, and the scandal did not go to Hammer's favor. Later, his discography was replenished with the album Inside Out, and the singer was overtaken by a complete failure - it was bought so little that the label broke the contract with the rapper.

The musician's financial affairs began to deteriorate rapidly. Over the years of popularity, Hammer got used to a luxurious life and all this time he carelessly spent money - he had 17 cars, a luxurious house and 2 helicopters, and now the singer was faced with the need to pay gigantic debts.

In April 1996, he declared himself bankrupt, information was leaked to the media about how much he owed creditors - the amount exceeded $ 13 million.

The rapper did not leave the stage and found a label willing to cooperate with him. Death Row Records released his next disc, but his former glory never returned. Just a year later, he returned to EMI, where he published a collection of hits, but he could not get things right.

The musician is married, with his wife Stephanie Fuller they are raising five children. In 1996, his wife contracted cancer. This was a hard blow for Hammer, who was already going through hard times in his work and was trying to save himself from financial ruin.

His wife's illness prompted him to rethink life. He remembered the religious dogmas instilled in childhood, and decided: all his troubles are from the fact that he forgot about God. This was the beginning of a sharp turn in his biography - the following years became the musician's spiritual revival.

From a rapper, he became a preacher and announced that now the letters MC in his name (the prefix popular among rappers, meaning Master of Ceremonies - host of parties, host) should be understood as Man of Christ - Man of Christ. He did not refuse music - it became the instrument of his new work.

Soon, Stephanie managed to defeat cancer, and in the new song He Brought Me Out, Hammer expressed his overwhelming enthusiasm for her healing. The new album Family Affair managed to sell only 500 thousand copies, but this did not bother the singer so much.

He began organizing weekly meetings with young people at the California Christian Center and published his book Enemies of the Father, and also publicly criticized fellow musicians Eminem and Basta Rhimes, accusing them of being spiritless.

The musician continues to do what he loves, but rarely appears in public. The last large-scale "release" to date was his appearance at the 40th American Music Awards ceremony. He is quite safe in his personal life and lives with his family on a ranch in California.

Now the former world rap star lives modestly, brings up children and works in a local church. He maintains accounts on social networks, including on Instagram, but he does not have many subscribers. Hammer's photos and interviews rarely appear in the media, and mostly these are not musical, but religious portals and publications.

1987 - Feel My Power 1988 - Let's Get It Started 1990 - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em 1991 - Too Legit to Quit 1994 - The Funky Headhunter 1995 - Inside Out 1996 - Too Tight 1998 - Family Affair 2001 - Active Duty 2003 - Full Blast 2006 - Look Look Look 2008 - Platinum

Stanley Kirk Berell 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Stanley Kirk Berell in 2020?

Stanley Kirk Berell Net Worth 2021

Stanley Kirk Berell 's revenue is $1.5M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Stanley Kirk Berell and could vary in the range between $640.6K - $1.2M.

Stanley Kirk Berell Net Worth 2020

Stanley Kirk Berell 's revenue is $1.8M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Stanley Kirk Berell and could vary in the range between $639K - $1.1M.

Stanley Kirk Berell Net Worth 2019

Stanley Kirk Berell 's revenue is $1.2M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Stanley Kirk Berell and could vary in the range between $759K - $1.9M.

Stanley Kirk Berell Net Worth 2018

Stanley Kirk Berell 's revenue is $1.1M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Stanley Kirk Berell and could vary in the range between $575.7K - $1.6M.

Stanley Kirk Berell Net Worth 2017

Stanley Kirk Berell 's revenue is $2M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Stanley Kirk Berell and could vary in the range between $663.8K - $1.3M.

Stanley Kirk Berell Net Worth 2016

Stanley Kirk Berell 's revenue is $1.4M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Stanley Kirk Berell and could vary in the range between $845.7K - $1.2M.

Stanley Kirk Berell Net Worth 2015

Stanley Kirk Berell 's revenue is $1.7M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Stanley Kirk Berell and could vary in the range between $823.9K - $1.9M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Stanley Kirk Berell. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Stanley Kirk Berell make a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Stanley Kirk Berell' projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.