After a run that saw him go from selling 16 million copies of his first five albums to becoming a bankrupt regular on the reality television circuit, M.C. Hammer is back. The now 45-year-old Hammer, whose real name is Stanley Burrell, will make his return to the boardroom, not the pop charts, as co-founder and chief strategy officer for the website DanceJam.com.
The site will launch in mid-January and hopes to compete with YouTube. Visitors will be encouraged to upload videos of themselves and others dancing, hence the name. Geoffrey Arone and Anthony Young will work alongside Hammer as chief executive officer and chief technology officer respectively. DanceJam was also given $1 million in startup funds from Ron Conway, one of Google’s earliest investors and a personal mentor of Hammer’s.
“There is no high-tech lingo or business strategy that you can talk that is above my head,” said Hammer in an interview with the Associated Press. “I breathe this stuff.”
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In less encouraging news on the Hip Hop front, Juice Crew member Tragedy Khadafi is serving time at Riker’s Island. Miss Info reports, via Tragedy’s personal friend and publicist Miranda Jane, that the Queensbridge resident was convicted of a class C felony for criminal sale of a controlled substance in the fourth degree. Such a charge usually carries a maximum sentence of four years, especially since Tragedy (Born Percy Chapman) has a past conviction.
Tragedy, who also recorded under the name Intelligent Hoodlum, made his name as the youngest member of TheJuice Crew and is credited for helping to discover and develop Capone-N-Noreaga. Various members of The Juice Crew have been enjoying renewed popularity since news of their upcoming biopic, The Vapors, was released. However, in an interview with MTV, founder Marley Marl reiterated that the cast is still being decided upon, and didn’t indicate if Tragedy would be portrayed or not.
