This image was lost some time after publication.

Rapper turned startup advisor MC Hammer recently swanned through the San Francisco offices of Imeem, praising the music startup for its "beautiful women." Why are startups so prone to opening their doors to the man formerly known as Stanley Kirk Burrell? Attention from a pop star, however marginal, however faded, provides the insecure geeks who run these companies with priceless external validation. Their work must be important — why MC Hammer came to our offices and ogled our female coworkers! The sad thing is that Burrell has been working the startup circuit since the last bubble.I remember when he swanned into the offices of eCompany Now, a long-gone tech-business magazine I worked at, in 2000, camera crew in tow. They were working on a documentary about a "startup" that never materialized. There you go: Even that part of Julia Allison's business plan isn't original.