Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

I remember that vividly – 1991, going to America and just watching it on MTV over and over again. And I just learnt every word. Songs like that made me think I could rap because I could just mimic and do exactly as I was seeing and hearing. Whenever there was an instrumental playing or anything playing, I would just say these lyrics over whatever beat I heard because I enjoyed rapping but didn’t have my own lyrics.

And the dancing was excellent! When MC Hammer was saying, "You can’t touch this", I didn’t really understand what he was talking about. I just liked the dancing and I just liked the fact that the song featured rapping in such a cool way. People might laugh at me because he’s not known as a rapper now, but I thought that was rap.

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