Hammer - 2 Legit 2 Quit
Unlike my Oakland, CA neighbor, I am quite comfortable quitting
June, 2017 - The Gift of Quitting, Part 1
I’d spent more than fifteen minutes trying to get my computer to connect to the server.
I restarted, I checked system preferences, I made sure the ethernet cable was connected. Still, only my local drive was mounting.
I turned around and could see that my coworker Matt was connected, so the network wasn’t down.
Fuck this, I said. Probably out loud. I got up from my desk to head to the break room to refill my coffee.
When I stood up, Samantha, who sat in the cubicle next to me approached.
“What’s up Steve?”
“Urgh…” I grunted.
Then, in a single, complainy run-on-sentence I explained to her my computer issues and the myriad of troubleshooting steps I’d taken. She nodded sympathetically.
“Have you tried (insert something fairly simple and commonplace)?”
Fuck.
I probably said that out loud.
I had not, in fact, tried that.
I can’t remember what “that” was, but for context, think of something more complex than restarting and less involved than requiring IT to get involved. Something I should have thought of, being a fairly adept Mac desktop user.
So, instead of refilling my coffee, I sat back down at my desk, then followed Samantha’s simple suggestion. It worked. Server drive mounted.
Samantha was standing behind me watching as I followed her steps.
“Thanks,” I said, feeling like a dumb-ass.
“I’m just curious,” Samantha said, trying not to gloat. “Why didn’t you try (simple thing that even luddites know how to do)?”
“I like to quit before I’ve tried everything,” I replied.
As a joke. But also a little bit serious. I tend to get easily discouraged. But I also don’t know when to ask for help.
I am a bit of a conundrum.
I can be doggedly persistent. Dealing with the medical and insurance industries almost on a daily basis trying to coordinate care for my aunt who lives in assisted- living 360 miles away from me can often be an exercise in futility.
“At least you’re getting some form of exercise!”
— Joke thought of just now by author
But I don’t have the luxury of quitting on family. And I’ve seen results when I put on my idea cap and don’t let the layers of bureaucracy and incompetency stop me from getting what I want.
At the same time, I can get easily frustrated. It does not take much. You don’t want to be near me if I knock a plate of chopped vegetables from the kitchen counter onto the floor while preparing dinner. I will blow it all out of proportion, make the accident symbolize everything that is wrong with me, how I’m incapable of cooking a meal and I may as well quit trying. I can easily find a way to tie my clumsiness back to the car that cut me off in traffic that morning, to my not having done yoga that day, to having pop-tarts for breakfast instead of fruit and yogurt.
I get this trait from my father, who would regularly blow his stack over a seemingly inconsequential thing, like his car keys not being where he thought he’d left them.
“God damn it!” he would yell. And stomp around the room like Godzilla.
“God damn it!” I now yell. And stomp around the room like King Kong.
But the difference is I’m aware of my dramatics and can laugh at them soon afterward. Most of the time.
The Benefits of Quitting
I’m a devoted fan of the podcast Hidden Brain.
I wrote about this particular love a few months ago in the March 2023 ReCOWmendations newsletter. If you missed that special podcast post, you can check it out here:
In a recent Hidden Brain episode the topic of discussion was knowing when to quit.
In this episode, economist John List, host Shankar Vedantam’s guest, says that in every domain of our lives, it’s important to know when to pivot to something new.
He talks about how we often are afraid to quit things that no longer serve us because all we can see is the time and effort we put into making it work up to that point.
It’s an insightful episode, which made me feel better about my tendency to be a jack of all trades, master of none. I used to think I simply couldn’t handle it when things got hard, but now I see that I had a lot of things I wanted to learn and only so many days of life left, so time to move on to the next cool thing!
I joke, but behind every joke is the truth.
And the truth is that I am a conundrum.
Sometimes I quit things when they get hard. Sometimes I stick with something when it’s clearly time to move on. And other times I stick it out when it gets hard because I know that real growth and understanding is waiting for me on the other side.
I guess the trick is having the self-awareness to know when quitting or not-quitting decisions are motivated by fear or love.
Too Legit To Quit
Like a lot of folks back in 1990, I wore Hammer pants (or parachute pants, as we called them pre-MC Hammer). Sorry no photos from back then to share. But, I own a pair of harem pants now, which I’m proudly displaying in the image above. (I paired them with as many differently patterned and colored clothing items as I could, including rainbow socks and black wrist brace.)
Hammer pants weren’t flattering to anyone, but they were especially unflattering for short men like me. Wearing these pants made me both 5’ 3” tall and wide. I didn’t care. I was comfortable. I felt free. I could move freely in all directions. The 1980s were all about skinny jeans and with my thick thighs, that wasn’t an option for me. When hammer pants became the rage, I was thrilled.
In the early ‘90s I was very much into rap and hip-hop. De La Soul’s De La Soul is Dead and A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory were probably my post played CDs of 1991. You know what wasn’t in my most played hip-hop CDs of 1991? MC Hammer’s fourth album 2 Legit 2 Quit.1
I will say that it’s not because of the album’s dance-oriented rap-lite sound. I was a big fan of C+C Music Factory’s Gonna Make You Sweat and still play “Things That Make You Go Hmmm” in many a dance mix today. But “This is the Way We Roll” the opening track on Too Legit To Quit is terrible. It borrows samples from James Brown and George Clinton and sucks all the funk out of both legends.
The song “2 Legit 2 Quit”2 though, that’s a banger. The beat is fast enough to keep your body moving and a good portion of the vocals are not MC Hammer trying to rap, with the chorus being sung by Saja, and adding in strong background vocals by Sonia Moore.
It’s a song designed to keep folks out on the dance floor. The only one on the album to do so. I gave it an open-minded listen again today and it really is the only half-way decent song. And clearly the chorus is catchy, as it has been my earworm all week.
If you want to watch the video for “2 Legit 2 Quit” without the low-budget3 extended skit that precedes it, click here. But I highly recommend the full 14 minute video (below), as not only is it an archeologic cultural artifact of the very specific world we lived in in 1991, but the concept behind it — that MC Hammer had quit the business at the height of his popularity, and every hip-hop artist and celebrity of the day is shocked and dumbfounded — shows how fast a star can fade after it burns bright.
Not that I would have ever wanted MC Hammer to have quit after the commercial highs of Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em (his 3rd album, the one with “U Can’t Touch This”), since this legit old school classic would have never graced our ears. And that would have been a huge loss.
It could have been released as a single though.
June, 2017 - The Gift of Quitting, Part 2
Two days after telling my coworker Samantha that I like to quit before I’ve tried everything, I returned to my desk to find a framed printed graphic attached to my cubicle wall. Displayed in ornate lettering was the adage: “I like to quit before I’ve tried everything.” in a calligraphy font with my name below.
Presented like a quote from Gandhi or Rumi. Something to inspire others so that their day might be a little less stressful.
Though some might think this gift was an elaborate prank, a way to make fun of me, I saw it in the spirit I’m sure it was intended. As a way to honor my unique reverse psychology wisdom.
Needless to say, I was beyond touched and honored. Samantha spent time and money putting it all together, clearly more time than I had spent trying to figure out how to access the server.
I proudly displayed this framed art at my desk for the next two years.
Did you know that MC Hammer has 8 albums? Are you willing to admit you have 5 of them?
Hammer or MC Hammer? I’m leaning toward Hammer. I’m sure there were lots of bad puns written at the time of his popularity. Feel free to leave yours in the comments.
I want to hear your stories of quitting. It could be smoking. It could be biting your nails. Let’s celebrate quitting.
This piece is plenty long enough. I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead.
I should correct myself and say “Hammer’s” 2 Legit 2 Quit, as Stanley Kirk Burrell decided to leave off the “MC” part of his name, perhaps realizing that he had sub par rapping skills.
It took me some time to realize this, as information is a bit inconsistent online, but I believe the album is titled Too Legit To Quit, but the song is titled “2 Legit 2 Quit.”
Actually high-budget. According to Wiki: The music video for "2 Legit 2 Quit" included many celebrity appearances. It was ranked one of the most expensive videos ever produced.[11][12][13] The hand gestures used within the video became very popular as was the catchphrase itself.[14] At the end of the video, after James Brown enlists Hammer to obtain the glove of Michael Jackson, a silver-white sequined glove is shown on the hand of a Jackson look-alike doing the "2 Legit 2 Quit" hand motions. It was a reference to Hammer wanting to challenge Jackson to a dance-off, for rights to his famous glove, which is also referenced on the album
I like to quit before I try everything - profound words. I feel these in my bones. I’m also a multihyphenate generalist and was just describing this to someone. A “Jill of all trades” a master of none. Also connect to the clumsy meal prep thing and making it into a colossal thing. But that’s more other things these days I can’t recall which of my parents did this but one of them had to right? How else do you learn this? It’s not all wiring.
One thing I’m glad you don’t quit… writing! Fun piece!