Nineties rap star MC Hammer has been hit with a $61,000 lawsuit by a publishing company for allegedly failing to finish a book he had agreed to write.

Bosses at Simon and Schuster filed the lawsuit on March 05, seeking the return of a $61,000 advance handed to Hammer for the book Enemies of the Father: Messages from the Heart on Being a Family Man.

The publisher's spokesman Adam Rothberg claimed the book was due in 2003, but "we never received the manuscript".

Three-time Grammy Award winner Hammer, whose real name is Stanley Burrell, appears unfazed by the threat of legal action.

He tells the New York Daily News, "It was for a book we were working on six years ago, and now I'm going another direction. The lawyers will settle it and it's on to the next thing. I wish them the best."

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)