U Can't Touch This (4:13)

U Can’t Touch This was MC Hammer’s most widely-known single, propelling sales of its album, Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em, which for a time was the best-selling rap album of all time, selling over ten million copies. The song heavily samples Rick James’s “Super Freak”; James is accordingly credited as a co-author. The lyrics, written entirely by Hammer, are in the boastful self-promotional style common in hip hop.

They describe the rapper as having “toured around the world, from London to the Bay” and as being “magic on the mic,” which Hammer says combines with Rick James’ “beat that you can’t touch” to create the perfect rap song. While some critics, especially in the gangsta rap community, disliked the song, enough people approved of it to secure the Grammy for Best R&B Song and Best Rap Solo Performance, a brand new category at the time, for MC Hammer.

In 2008, it was ranked number 26 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.