Virgil Abloh

Here are six album covers that American fashion designer Virgil Abloh helped create. Image via Twitter @ochocinco

Ye to Pop Smoke: Six hip-hop album covers Virgil Abloh worked on [listen]

Fashion designer Virgil Abloh was popular in American hip-hop circles and worked with several rappers including Kanye West. Here are six albums he helped create.

Virgil Abloh

Here are six album covers that American fashion designer Virgil Abloh helped create. Image via Twitter @ochocinco

Virgil Abloh was known for his incredible contribution to fashion. The 41-year-old passed away on Sunday 28 November after a private battle with cancer. Abloh was the first black artistic director at Louis Vuitton. The celebrated fashion designer was also popular in hip-hop circles and designed a few iconic album covers. Here are six hip-hop album covers that Virgil Abloh assisted with. 

ALSO READ: Virgil Abloh: Black Coffee leads celebrity tributes following designer’s death

KANYE WEST – ‘MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY’

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of Kanye West’s classic albums The album released in 2010 features household names in hip-hop such as Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, Big Sean, Rick Ross and Kid Cudi. 

Virgil Abloh was the art director for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The album cover was designed by George Condo. According to Complex, Condo had these words to say about Abloh:

“Virgil makes things happen, intrinsically knowing that his talent is to move into an electric field and create a transcendent art experience for our people.”

JAY-Z AND KANYE WEST – ‘WATCH THE THRONE’

Watch The Throne is one of the most popular joint albums between two rappers. Jay-Z and Kanye West trusted Virgil Abloh with the art direction for the Watch The Throne album cover. The simple but memorable gold foil album cover led Abloh to his first Grammy nomination. The 41-year-old fashion designer was nominated for Best Recording Package. 

WESTSIDE GUNN – ‘PRAY FOR PARIS’

Pray for Paris is Westside Gunn’s third studio album. The 13-track album features the likes of Tyler, the Creator, Benny the Butcher, Conway the Machine, Wale and R&B songstress Joyce Wrice. 

Westside Gunn and Virgil Abloh have a long history. According to GQ, the two interacted online for a while and when Gunn mentioned Abloh’s name in a track, it caught the fashion designer’s attention. 

The publication also highlights that while Abloh designed the Fall/Winer 2020/2021 Louis Vuitton collection, he played Westside Gunn’s latest project at the time from front to back. When Abloh unveiled the collection at Paris Fashion Week in January 2020, he needed to have Westside Gunn in the front row. The trip was Gunn’s first time out of the United States and he recorded a portion of Pray for Paris in France’s capital city.

LIL UZI VERT – ‘LUV IS RAGE 2’

Luv is Rage 2 is Lil Uzi Vert’s debut album. Virgil Abloh was the creative director for Uzi Vert’s album and explained to The Fader that he was brought onto the project during its final stages. “Uzi hit me up and was like, ‘I need you to creative direct my project in the final hours,’” he told the publication. 

The album cover features Abloh’s signature “OFF-WHITE” branding.

KANYE WEST – ‘YEEZUS’

Virgil Abloh created Kanye West’s Yeezus with Justin Saunders, Joe Perez, Matthew M Williams and Ye himself. 

Speaking on the significance of the album cover in a lecture at Columbia University in 2017, Abloh said: “It represented the death of a CD… It’s an open casket for a format of music we were raised off of that’ll never be seen.”

ALSO READ: Virgil Abloh: The man who brought the street to the catwalk

POP SMOKE – ‘SHOOT FOR THE STARS, AIM FOR THE MOON’

Before his death, Virgil Abloh formed a close relationship with rapper Pop Smoke. According to GQ, Abloh and Pop Smoke had several conversations about collaborations, including an album cover.

Abloh designed the album cover for Pop Smoke’s posthumous album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon and said it was inspired by a conversation he had with the Element rapper.

“His story felt like the metaphor of a rose and thrones growing from [the concrete] of his hood in Canarsie, Brooklyn.”