The Art of Records Recap

Photos of the final works hanging with their accompanying 12 inch at Family Affair Denver. Twas a great show with some cool takes on the original album art. This album cover was a great challenge to undertake with such limited time and the vision that I saw for the final piece. Ever since I was a kid I have greatly enjoyed getting new music and always loved when musicians used artwork for the cover. It tells a different story than a well taken photograph, or even the best digital artists rendition, in my opinion. So when I was approached for this show I had a few ideas in mind for covers that I had always considered my favorites, both musically and cover art wise, but had yet to fully decide on one, there are so many. You can see a few of those in the thumbnails from the initial post. 

When push came to shove, I wanted to re-create the Lootpack cover, even if it meant giving up some sleep. Hailing from Oxnard, California the Lootpack is comprised of Wildchild, Madlib, and DJ Romes. I have had the priveledge of traveling to Oxnard and painting there, it is grimy to say the least. This album was released in 1998 I believe, and I first saw a video for it on a late night public music channel around the same time for "When I'm On Da Mic" which is absolutely hilarious. In short it has Lootpack as MIB and then finding aliens in the desert in shiny suits, check it out. I instantly knew that the music from this group was going to be something. Madlib of course has gone on to become one of the most sought after producers in Hip Hop, if not the most talented, also my opinion. 

With all this in mind I set out on creating the cover for this album that I always had envisioned, not to downplay what the artist had produced before, but a super hero hip hop version of yourself should be pretty cool looking.  I honestly think that Madlib or other members probably produced the artwork themselves. I really wanted to add a sense of classic realism, and a strong sense of the likeness/superhero feel, but also in a classic vibe. The results are seen above, I am very happy with this piece, and will most definitely send it out to Oxnard. All the challenges and difficulties of including small details to overall impact were achieved in less than 24 hours, I am proud of that. Other works seen are from Stereo-Abstract, Dunn the Signtologist, and Michael Coriano. Special thanks to Dunn for the invite, and Es Nine for hooking the original 12" for display and play for the night. Thanks for taking the time to read if your into that, and to view the work. More tomorrow.