Nashville,
TN startup EverGreen Copyright has acquired the music catalog of MC Hammer from
the trustee of the rapper’s bankruptcy estate for $2.7 million. Evergreen,
which was launched six-months ago by industry veterans Joel A. Katz, David K.
Schulhof, and Richard Perna, now controls over 40,000 copyrights. "We
made tremendous progress in only six months," said David K. Schulhof, co-CEO
of Evergreen. "The MC Hammer catalog brings some of thebest selling and
most popular rap songs of all time to Evergreen’s catalog."Songs
in MC Hammer’s catalog include "Turn This M#### Out," from the rapper’s
breakout double platinum release Let’s Get It Started, as well as "Too Legit
To Quit," "Pray" and one of rap’s biggest selling singles, "U
Can’t Touch This," which helped the rapper’s 1990 release Please Hammer Don’t
Hurt ‘Em to sales in excess of 10 million copies."We
anticipate that many songs in the MC Hammer catalog will emerge as a perfect fit
for licensing in movies, television shows, and corporate advertising," Schulhof
added. MC
Hammer filed for bankruptcy protection in 1996, with debts in excess of $14 million,
despite raking in over $33 million in 1991. Some
of the rapper’s assets included a luxurious mansion valued between $12 and $20
million dollars, 17 race cars, a Boeing 727, a Kentucky Derby race horse and a
monthly payroll of over $500,000.Evergreen
also acquired producer/publisher Jerry Crutchfield’s Crutchfield/Glitterfish catalog,
which includes hits from Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, George Straight and others.
The
company also owns the catalogs of Rykomusic/Warlock Music and the music catalog
of hit R&B producer Teddy Riley. In
related news, MC Hammer, who owns the rights to his new material, recently released
an album on iTunes titled Look3X. The album is expected in retail stores
soon.