A Deeper Look: 6 of the Summer's Most Intriguing Album Covers
Too often do we equate the value and caliber of a musician’s artistry with the cleverness of their moniker or their industry affiliations. We neglect to weigh in the album cover artwork, which is an extension of their craft in the most literal sense. The album artwork is not only a visual representation of the body of work we know as an album, but of the artists themselves.
Kanye West seems to have kick-started the movement of ditching a posed self-portrait and implementing depth, using visual metaphors, and pushing the artistic envelope with his cover for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which caused critics and casual viewers alike to let out a simultaneous “what the hell?”
Here’s a look at the thought-provoking covers of six of the most highly anticipated albums of the season and why they are what they are.
Kanye West seems to have kick-started the movement of ditching a posed self-portrait and implementing depth, using visual metaphors, and pushing the artistic envelope with his cover for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which caused critics and casual viewers alike to let out a simultaneous “what the hell?”
Here’s a look at the thought-provoking covers of six of the most highly anticipated albums of the season and why they are what they are.
Big K.R.I.T., Live from the Underground — June 5
Mississippi rep Big K.R.I.T. pulled out the visual metaphors for his debut album. He chose a purple hued, spacey illustration of an old car that had crashed into the ground of a strange planet. In the corner of the image is his Reeses cup-esque logo with a cutout of the word “K.R.I.T.” Why the car? Why the crash? Because he has arrived. His cover is a presentation of his infiltration of the rap scene.
He put it in his own words on his website:
“This is the artwork 4 my debut album “Live From The Underground”. It’s a representation of how I feel about underground vs mainstream music. At times I feel like mainstream music operates on a totally different planet. This illustrates how I’ve crash landed into the mainstream to bring the sounds from the underground back 2 the forefront. I want to thank everyone for all their support of my journey so far. Especially Team Big K.R.I.T. and my K4L supporters. I put twitter and facebook backgrounds in here for y’all to put on your pages. Let’s make history on June 5th… – K.R.I.T.”
With this artwork, the King will indeed be Remembered In Time.
Frank Ocean, channel ORANGE — July 17
By now, you should have downloaded Frank Ocean’s album (through iTunes, of course). Which means you also saw the cover art, or rather, lack thereof. An electric tangerine hue coats the album from cover to cover, with the words channel ORANGE etched on the front in the plainest of fonts. His name is nowhere to be found. He had a hefty hand in the production of his album, yet he wasn’t on the cover. The wordsmith and soulful vocalist didn’t need to figure out a complicated, self-boasting visual to make us listen, the content sold itself.
“Orange reminds me of the summer I first fell in love,” he posted on his Tumblr, just a few entries before he revealed to the world that this love was of his same gender. The album cover reflects just that. channel ORANGE is a convoluted love story of sorts, and Frank wanted his audience to take his album for what it was. Honest lyrics, entrancing melodies and raw emotions. Nothing else.
Nas, Life is Good — July 17
In the case of Nasir Jones, a self-portrait was used as the face of his album, but the focus was hardly the “self.”
The cover is as follows: him sitting in an all-black room, dapperly dressed in a crème ensemble, holding a glass of bubbly, with his ex-wife Kelis’ iconic green wedding dress laid across his lap. There it is, the dress—a symbol of his joy temporarily turned sour – juxtaposed against the celebratory statement of his album, Life is Good.
He explained it all to MTV. “The cover is the blues,” he told them. “It’s really true to what I’ve been through. It just felt right. The dress bothered me in the house. It always bothered me and I thought about doing something with it. When we realized on the special that all she left was the green dress, it clicked right there. Some things you can’t plan, they happen.” This hard-core lyricist of a legend bared his vulnerability and showed that he, too, is human. This album was his “Aha!” moment, and he laid all his cards out on the table.
2 Chainz, Based On A T.R.U. Story — August 14
Tity Boi is trying to make a big impact with his first album as part of the G.O.O.D. music crew, so much so that the first person he thought of in terms of cover design were Kanye and his creative team at DONDA. “They were the first people I thought of,” he told Billboard, explaining that he trusted them to adequately communicate his vision. “Their team is unprecedented.”
The cover for his highly anticipated debut album Based On A T.R.U. Story is simply a portrait of two gold chains laid across a black background. That’s it. It was shot by Fabien Montique. As he describes it to VIBE, it’s an iconic cover. “I think it’ll be one of the best covers of today,” he explained,” as far as it being self-explanatory, simple yet complex as far as “duh!” People thought they would see a picture, a portrait, or whatever. I feel like the cover says a thousand words. This is an instance where you can judge this book by its cover. It’s a dope ass cover for this book and the stuff inside of it is dope too.” Well said.
Simplicity is key, and it works for 2 Chainz.
Busta Rhymes, Year of the Dragon — August (Date TBA)
It’s been three years since Busta’s last album. His fans are anxious, and his album artwork Year of the Dragon is fuel to the fire.
The free album (to be released via Google Play) is represented by a large dragon towering over helmeted soldiers, spewing flames from its open mouth. The eerie cover looks like a Disney tale on bath salts. The illustration can easily be taken as a promise from the Brooklyn MC’s that he’ll stay true his nickname as the “Dungeon Dragon” and be spitting that fire. His album release also correlates with the time period, as this is the year of the Dragon, according to the Chinese zodiac. It’s his first release since joining the YMCMB family, and, via his Twitter, he prepares us for the coming with this:
“@BusaBusss #YEAROFTHEDRAGON #StayTuned… Evil Grin… Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!”
Wiz Khalifa, O.N.I.F.C. — September 18
Wiz Khalifa is taking a step down from his clouds in the sky to show just how much he’s living in the lap of luxury. His new lifestyle is personified in the 70s inspired artwork for his sophomore album, O.N.I.F.C.
A bare-chested Wiz is reclined in a black chair staring boldly into the camera, wearing a snow-leopard fur coat that seems to swallow his small tatted frame, patriotic stars and stripes pants, several glittering rings and a marijuana leaf chain. This cover is undeniably more luxurious than those for previous projects Rolling Papers, Deal or No Deal, and Show and Prove.
Back in February, he explained the meaning behind his explicit album title, which stands for “Only N*gga In First Class,” on #SwayinTheMorning on Shade 45. "I was just talking about me being a young rich dude and being black," he told Sway. "It looks crazy to them when I walk up to them and show them my ticket or I'm going in priority seating. They're like 'You're sure?'" With this album, he intends to fully celebrate all his success and his riches in spite of such ill-treatment.
Well Wiz, with this cover, point taken.
