TVSquad

I am the worst person anyone could ever choose to conduct an interview with MC Hammer. A Transylvanian hermit who only knows how to operate an 8-track player would be a step up from me.

I didn't listen to his music growing up as a child of the 80s, except for the occasional sound waves that wafted passed my ears as my cooler classmates blared it from the stereos in their rooms. I've never even interviewed anyone in the hip-hop community.

I've done the research. I studied the first two episodes of his new A&E reality series Hammertime, premiering next Sunday at 10 PM Eastern. I've read up on his days as a batboy with the Oakland A's where Reggie Jackson first gave him the nickname "Hammer' after "Hammerin'" Hank Aaron. I found out from my old man who hates it when I call him my old man that Hammer was even in the Navy. Holy crap. My Dad, the whitest man I know, knows more about MC Hammer than I do.

My fear of putting my foot in my mouth bled into my interview. But Hammer, good sport that he is, put up with my nervousness and dumb jokes and reminded his eager audiences why he and his family are on television.

DG: So should I call you MC or Hammer or Stanley or Mr. Burrell or M or C?

MC: (laughs) Call me Hammer.

DG: How does a person convince their family to do a reality show? Does it really take a lot of convincing?

MC: You ever seen a line of people when they announce that American Idol is holding auditions? There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who show up. Or one of those shows where they fix your home up, they get thousands of people from the community to come help out. It's the same process. Young people who have grown up with 24-hour Internet access, streaming video, music video, television shows, gaming, wireless devices in their hands 24/7, PDAs, Sidekicks, Blackberries, iPhones. Saying to them do you want to be on all of those places, the line starts in New York and goes all the way back to California. So I didn't have to do too much convincing.

DG: As a father though, you must be concerned about putting them out there on TV and your whole life out there for everyone to see.

MC: No, not at all. The work went in before the camera went on. I'll say that a little slower. The work went in, the raising of the children, the rearing of the kids and the relationship with my wife, went in before the camera went on. So I was not overly concerned about what would be captured because the reality is we had already been a family way before the cameras went on. And who my kids and my wife are, I was very comfortable with.

DG: So this is a reality show. How real do you keep things?

MC: They didn't send you anything to see?

DG: No, they did. I just mean when you look back on the first two episodes, 30 minutes isn't your whole life. How representative is it of your own life?

MC: It's a good representation of who we are, very fair and honest representation. I think it's well done. I think it captures who we are.

DG: When the cameras started rolling, did it feel different or did it meld into the background?

MC: I started with the Oakland A's back in 1971 and there was press at every game and there were cameras on me when I was that young. So with 20 years being MC Hammer, I'm comfortable with cameras so when the camera goes on, I continue doing what I'm doing.

DG: You mentioned technology earlier and I noticed in the show that you do Twitter updates and how you think of yourself as a tech geek. How much Twittering and MySpace do you do and will we see more of that in the show?

MC: You'll see a lot of it in the show. Social networking is an integral part of life today and I'm an earlier adopter of it, so you'll see it throughout the series. How much do I do during the day? As we're talking now, I'm still tweeting and doing my thing. It's a very efficient way to live, so yeah I do a lot.

DG: How much of your past do you revisit in the upcoming episodes?

MC: All of it. There are some Hammer concerts in the upcoming episodes. There's studio rehearsals and dance rehearsals being done in my dance studio. There's an episode with myself and Vanilla Ice on there that involves performance and other things. So you'll see the musician MC Hammer as well.

DG: I noticed you have an executive producer credit. How much say do you have on the creative process of the show?

MC: I wouldn't do it without that. That's the whole purpose of being executive producer and creator. If I couldn't wear those hats, there wouldn't be a show.

DG: Have your kids seen it? What do they think of the show?

MC: They love it. They think they look good. They are who they are. (laughs) They see themselves as themselves through the show. They're happy with themselves.

DG: What about your wife?

MC: Same thing. She's very proud of her kids and she's comfortable with who she is.

DG: What can we look forward to in the subsequent shows?

MC: Throughout these ten or eleven episodes... through music, technology, family, holidays, birthdays, trials and tribulations, at the end of the day, you'll find a family that is inspirational and hopeful. In this current environment that we find ourselves in in America and the world, family and love of family at the end of the day is more important than anything. I think that's what you'll find very interesting and we hope will keep you watching the series.