Week #29 ('20) Art Appreciation

Welcome to my weekly Art Appreciation post, where I provide a list of some amazing album covers, single art, and random art that have come out within the past week. I’ll give you the artist/photographer/painter/magician’s name, as well as any social media or websites where you can go and check out more of their work. Click here to go back and see some other Art Appreciation posts.

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Lots of great, stylistically unique stuff to work with this week, so get excited. Most album covers in hip-hop, especially looking back into the 90’s, are portraits, traditionally facial (think Nas’ It Was Written) but occasionally full body (Old Dirty Bastard’s N***a Please). But it’s cool whenever a piece is able to stage a scene of some kind, subtly telling a story of it’s own that may tie inot the album’s narratives and motifs. It’s not going to be anything mindblowing most of the time, but it always adds that extra layer of engagement to an album, something I appreciate (and I hope through these posts y’all can appreciate this too). Pay attention to where your eyes are drawn in these pieces, and the techniques that the artists use to direct your eyes indirectly.

Remember, use this post to follow and subscribe to these artists; they deserve as much recognition as the musicians they are attached to.

Artist(s): Bobbito Ross

From El Barrio, With Love , by UFO Fev & Termanology

Embracing your roots is an integral part of the hip-hop experience, and representing it physically in the art is nothing new in the genre. This cover reminds me a lot (both in idea and medium) to what Wiki did with his No Mountains in Manhattan album he came out with a few years ago (drawn by Wiki himself if I remember correctly), with the Puerto Rican love Bobbito instills in this piece being palpable not only in the overt symbolism of the hanging flag, but also the color scheme of the entire piece. The bricks, Fev’s jacket, the chalk circle, and even the man in the background, all utilize the red/blue/white scheme, with the reliance on white to preventing mix-ups with the colors of the U.S. I love how the biggest difference in color is with the doorway in the background: a solid gold, like Fev is out here guarding the gateway to real hip-hop or some shit (he does like pretty intimidating with those shades). Heavy and loose brushstrokes on everything but UFO Fev brings him into focus like he’s posing for a picture. A standout painting from underground hip-hop, a trend I’m noticing more as more artists are being noticed for their talents. Big ups Bobbito Ross on this one; you killed it.

Bobbito’s Instagram/Bobbito’s Website

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Artist(s): No Paradigms

Duce N Juice , by TyFontaine (Feat. Lil Keed)

The cool thing about this piece is the obvious one: it looks like clay sculptures, but it’s actually impeccably designed 3D sculpting. I love how No Paradigms has his own very unique and identifiable style of making his human subjects, where the exaggerated facial features bring a lot of character to to those depicted, but not in the traditional sense of caricature. It’s more like The Simpsons where Matt Groening has his own stylistic go-to’s (shape of the body, mouth structure), matching No Paradigms’ own go to’s (eyeballs & jawlines). I also love that, unlike a lot of his other work that show faces and personal portraits, you get a little bit of a scene here with the pouring of the “duce” (I’m sure Fontaine meant d’usse) and the interaction between the characters. I’ve loved everything I’ve seen from this guy, and I hope to see his work featured more in the future.

No Paradigm’s Instagram/No Paradigm’s Twitter/No Paradigm’s Website

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