MC Hammer to Launch ‘DanceJam,’ a YouTube for Dance Videos

Scheduled to debut in mid-January, the famed early-90’s superstar behind “U Can’t Touch This” hopes to catch lighting in a bottle once again and create a hub for sharing and watching dance videos.

MC Hammer, aka Stanley Kirk Burrell, is seeking out a new career these days in the high-tech hallways of Silicon Valley. After a string of hits that included his best known single “U Can’t Touch This” in the early 1990’s, Hammer would soon declare bankruptcy in 1996 under a mountainous $14 million in debt. Now, as co-founder and chief strategy officer of Menlo Park-based DanceJam.com, he hopes to grab a piece of the rapidly growing Internet advertising market by creating a new hub for sharing and watching dance videos.

Part of the appeal of the site may lie in the fact that MC Hammer still does have widespread name recognition, and that when it comes to dancing “Hammer Time” ranks right up there with the “Roger Rabbit” in the dance move hall of shame.

But Hammer’s involvement in DanceJam has more to do with his technological savvy than his celebrity, said Ron Conway, a longtime Silicon Valley investor who is part of a small group that provided DanceJam with $1 million in startup funds.

“I expect him to integrate all his knowledge into this Web site,” said Conway, who befriended Hammer at a baseball game seven years ago and has been tutoring him in the ways of technology ever since. “He is the lightning rod for this whole thing.”

However, Hammer and his two DanceJam partners, Geoffrey Arone, the chief executive, and Anthony Young, the chief technology officer, are entering a market already filled with dozens of other video streaming websites that have built huge video libraries.

Arone became convinced of the need for a site devoted exclusively to dance videos shortly after he left a site he helped co-found called Flock. Hammer had apparently been feeling the same way about dance for years so they quickly hit it off when they first met and hammered out the concept for DanceJam.

Drawing upon the popularity of reality shows like “Dancing With The Stars,” DanceJam will stage head-to-head competitions where contestants submit videos that will be judged by viewers. The site will also provide demonstrations and information about a wide variety of dances, ranging from the Boogaloo to the Krump.

Arone, Hammer and Young have spent several months videotaping people around the country dancing. They say they have stockpiled about 100 gigabytes of video to help launch DanceJam.

A blog post on YouTube shows that MC Hammer had an inkling of its power back in February 2006 when it was still being run by a handful of people atop a pizza parlor. In the clip below you can see Hammer being given a tour of the offices.

As if we didn’t have enough reasons to be excited, the other night we got a visit from MC HAMMER! Hammer came by the office to lend a hand and showed us the sweet new video for his song Look. While Hammer was here he dropped some serious science about the recording industry and taught us the difference between Hyphy, Thizz and Krumping.

DanceJam.com has a unique idea for sure and with the power of MC Hammer’s apparent media and marketing savvy it may just work. Maybe he can even tap into the power of all the people into that crazy “Dance Dance Revolution” video game.

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