Why does he get such a bad rap?

I almost took a History of Hiphop class my senior year of college (naturally there was a waiting list) but since I decided on taking something else, I still purchased the accompanying reading. If you hvae an interest in this genre of music, it combines a lengthy list of articles that hit all aspects of the hip hop industry - the earliest days of rap (DJ Kool Herc and Grandwizard Theodore), how the rap video became mainstream, gangster rap, origins of pop rap and everything in between.

There's a solid piece about MC Hammer and what he did for the rap industry. His second album (the one everyone knows) has sold more rap albums than anyone else, going 10X platinum. He was the guy that got me into rap music - actually, it was the first album I ever bought. Sure, his flow sucked. And his most famous hits sampled the shit out of lesser known acts. But he paved the way for many, many rappers and R&B stars that would have been bunched together with all the other nonsense that was available at that time. I wish I had a few examples, but I can't think of any right now. Grrr...Anyway, go get the book and spend another 10 minutes downloading Hammer's Greatest Hits from Limewire. It still holds up.