Week #33 ('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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The Face: it’s something we humans can look at and find some sort of solidarity and one-ness among total strangers. Creating a good portrait (or utilizing one taken in other mediums like photography), can create a much stronger attachment to a project than any other form of cover-art. Everyone can see the connections made in classic covers like Nas’ Illmatic and Mobb Deep’s The Infamous, the strong gazes setting us up for gritty and confrontational album of street warfare. But what I have for you this week are some different ways that you can subvert those tropes for the purpose of uncanniness, cultural appreciation, and cinematic stylization. This kind of work is the cornerstone of hip-hop cover-art, so pay attention and take notes.

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): ChrisHaven

The Versace Tape, by Boldy James

Here we have one of the most iconic images of the legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace, flipped and on it’s head with the now-iconic style of the Griselda collective, especially Conway the Machine’s album covers. The Everybody is F.O.O.D. series, Look What I Became, and G.O.A.T. all follow similar patterns, but this one has that added layer of attachment given that The Versace Tape is produced by none other than *Jay* Versace, the famous Vine star from back in the day. The regality and high-fashion of Versace fits the artform that is Boldy’s delivery and lyrics, much in the same way that Osama Bin-Laden represented the ferocity of Conway the Machine on G.O.A.T.’s cover. The genius behind these covers is that they allow you to tap into a preestablished identity (like Versace), but by obscuring the face (with thematically appropriate colors no less) in a mysterious, but still somewhat face-like, blob you’re allowing the artist to insert himself into the world an inhabit the space with their own personality mixed with what’s presented on the front cover. Give Griselda flowers for not only coming through with an identifiable sound, but also an identifying art-style too.

ChrisHaven's Instagram/ChrisHaven’s Website

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Artist(s): its_a_s_h_a_

Black Filter, by Trinidad James & Fyre

Something that is immensely surprising about this new Trinidad James project is how many times he steps up to talk about Black issues, and even topics that stretch back to the Motherland itself. It’s not the entire album by any means, but *any* sort of thoughtful reflection from James is welcome, and this shift is marked perfectly in this album cover right here. Gold is a very tough color (and texture for that matter) to work with on canvas; while I’m not 100% certain the medium of a_s_h_a’s piece here, I can say she’s overcome that difficulty in lovely fashion. The use of the color reminds me of paintings by the famous Gustav Klimt, not nearly as detailed but the gold is used in similar fashion. Where she makes the biggest statement is with the actual portrait done here, which contains elements of tribal art; I’m not familiar with the art of Trinidad James’ native…. Trinidad… but I think this piece takes more from African sources anyway, with little definition in the face and the simple but bold color blocks. The dot pattern around the eye, as well as the beautiful earrings, are all details that I appreciate to give the piece more character. My favorite aspect is the top of the head, which I’m still not quite sure exactly *what* it is, but it looks like clouds making up a sort of brain; I see it as gray for the graymatter, black for the permanent scars of living through life, and gold for the wisdom we’ve gathered. All in all, it’s a colorful and deeply representative piece.

its_a_s_h_a’s Instagram

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Artist(s): Manuel “Cep” Concepcion

Bite the Bullet, by Daniel Son, Asun Eastwood, & Futurewave

By God, Cep has done it again, another killer piece of art that furthers his killstreak in this genre. He does a lot of work with skulls and comic-book scrap-art, but this is the first piece that I’ve seen from him that focuses so intently on a portraited face like. The detail in the expression is fantastically rendered, the mouth really portraying that loud shout, the terror and pain in plain view in his eyes, and even the nose flared out like it is adds to the sense of high-stakes peril. The ferocity of the album matches the cinematic danger of the portrait, with Asun and Daniel mafia-inspire bars sort of giving a backstory to this man’s predicament. You’ve got the electrical poles in the background, which along with the dirt-nap this guy seems to be taking points to De Niro and Pesci movies, burying bodies out in the desert in true mobster fashion. This guy actually “biting the bullet” is the cherry on top (not even mentioning the fact that the back cover is another one of Cep’s amazing skull designs, that shit is fire too).

Cep’s Instagram/Cep’s Twitter/Cep’s Website

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