I went to high school in Fremont California, which back then was a really boring suburb in the San Francisco East Bay. By all accounts it’s still boring as hell, but it is now home to the largest group of immigrants from Afghanistan in the United States. So much so that it has the nickname of ‘Little Kabul’. This is a huge change to the area, because thirty years ago is was almost all white and quite racist. That is what made MC Hammer’s move to the area in 1991 really strange and fascinating at the same time.

Why would a rap star from Oakland want to live in a mansion in Fremont to begin with? Fremont was boring and totally devoid of culture. There were no large or even medium sized venues for live music. The most exciting thing to happen every weekend there was the Rocky Horror Picture Show that was screened at an old school type theatre on the main drag. I honestly don’t remember the name of the place and I only went a handful of times before I got really bored of it. To this day I cannot watch that film without flinching.

I guess maybe MC Hammer still wanted to be close to Oakland and Fremont was considered more safe? His mansion was in a gated community. However, it was really easy to get through because all you had to do was follow another car in. It was kind of a ‘thing’ to drive around in that area and stare at all of the really gaudy mansions. There was a whole section of that gated community where nothing was built yet so people would drive into that bit and party.

I saw the diamond hair dude with the red coat twice.

One of the strangest aspects of this entire thing was running into MC Hammer’s crew around Fremont. Everybody saw them at least once. I especially remember the dude with the diamond shaped hair. I saw him at Newpark Mall and at The Hub shopping center.

All good things must come to an end. In 1996 MC Hammer declared bankruptcy and in 1997 sold his Fremont mansion for just over 5 million dollars. Somebody paid over 5 million to live in Fremont? It boggles the mind!