Pumps And A Bump – Hammer | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: Pop (#26) & R&B (#21); 1994

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

After the breathtaking triumph of U Can’t Touch This, Have You Seen Her, and Pray, M.C. Hammer’s pop fortunes cooled a bit. So the-man-formerly-known-as-Stanley-Burrell dropped the “M.C.” and unleashed 2 Legit 2 Quit.

Addams Groove from The Adamms Family Movie performed well also, then Hammer slumped again. The public seemed just plain tired of the M.C. music machine. But, never count the Hammer out! Two years later, in 1994, Hammer returned with a harder sound on The Funky Headhunters.

Funky‘s funky lead-off single, It’s All Good, reached #14 R&B, however, it’s pop crossover impact was weak. Pumps And A Bump improved on Good‘s #46 mainstream peak, rising to #26, and bounced all the way to #2 on the Hot Rap Singles list, buoyed by a sample from funkmeister George Clinton’s Atomic Dog.

For its part, Funky Headhunter also reached #2, on the R&B/Hip-Hop album chart, and moved over a million pieces. Unfortunately, Pumps was Hammer’s last hurrah, and his career was down for the count…so far.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

• Hammer
• Gerald Baillergeau

Lyrics Written by:

• Stanley Burrell
• Gerald Baillergeau
• Deuce Deuce
• George Clinton
• Garry Shider
• David Spradley