TOUGHENING UP: Hammer, who was put down...

TOUGHENING UP: Hammer, who was put down by hard-core rappers as too soft during his hit years at Capitol, is apparently opting for a harder edge when he resurfaces at Giant Records. His “The Funky Head Hunter”--which will be released as soon as legal difficulties with his former label are resolved--contains sexual innuendo and macho posturing that, while not as biting as Ice Cube’s, is more explicit than Hammer’s previous albums.

Hammer even disses such fellow rappers as Rodney O, A Tribe Called Quest, Q-Tip, M.C. Serch, Dres, Red Man and Run-DMC on the track “Breakem Off Something Proper.”

Will hip-hoppers buy it?

“Trying to come off like a gang-sta would be objectionable,” says Alan Light, the music editor of Vibe magazine, who has not yet heard the album. “He could probably get away to a certain degree with talking about social conditions and economic conditions. He was respected as a businessman and entrepreneur before things fell apart. But I don’t know about Hammer trying to come back hard and talking nasty. Not after recording (the gospel-rap song) ‘Pray.’ ”