What was the atmosphere like? People say the Death Row office was filled with gang members and that fights could break out at any second… I literally started as an in-house artist on Death Row the day Snoop Dogg got acquitted for murder. You gotta remember that nearly every member of the staff at Death Row was someone plucked from the ghetto! It was the very definition of a black-owned label he gave opportunities to people who had nothing!Īnyways, so Suge showed Tupac my portfolio, he liked it, and from there I did a cartoon for the All Eyez On Me liner notes. A lot of rappers like to rep Compton, but they don’t really give back to the community like Suge did. The media loves to paint Suge as this bogeyman, but he would pass out turkeys to the poor on Thanksgiving, give out toys to school kids at Christmas and on Mother’s Day he would host Death Row events for mothers without money. I give Suge all the credit as he literally plucked me out of the streets and gave me a position at the biggest hip-hop label in the country. I developed a buzz around the city and it must have got Suge Knight’s attention. When I was in high school, I did graffiti and started airbrushing t-shirts at the Compton Swat Meet and people would pay me well to do their clothes. She drew stuff when she would babysit me and I would copy her drawings. You went from doing graffiti and making t-shirts for your friends to working with Tupac Shakur at the height of his career.
2PAC MAKAVELI ALBUM ARTWORK CRACK
Crack Magazine caught up with Brent to find out how this haunting artwork came together. He was plucked from relative obscurity by Death Row CEO Suge Knight, who recruited Brent as one of the label’s in-house artists. The fact this artwork was recently referenced so obviously by West Coast upstart 03 Greedo, for his brilliant God Level album, serves as proof of The 7 Day Theory’s continued cultural relevance.Ĭompton native Ronald “Riskie” Brent was just 24 when he created this haunting image. In 2019, this image feels prescient, Shakur’s corpse the byproduct of an unequal American society that continues to tear down young black men, almost at a whim. The rapper has mournful eyes and blood trickling down his naked body, the names of American cities pinned to his cross. These mostly morbid songs are summarised perfectly by the record’s sinister artwork, which depicts the crucifixion of Shakur. The fact the record still makes room for music for the clubs ( Toss It Up) is testament to Shakur’s infinite range.
The gangster sermon Hail Mary, meanwhile, sounds like Shakur’s spirit is literally haunting the booth, with some of the lyrics – “ When they turn out the lights, I’ll be there in the dark” – so chilling they’ll make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. On Blasphemy, Shakur predicts that living a gangster life will result in his death while weighing up what awaits him in the next world (he speculates: “ Everybody kissing ass to go to heaven isn’t going, I put my soul on it!”).
Subsequently, the record, completed while the West Coast rapper was still alive, naturally inherited an eerie feel. The 7 Day Theory, named after the condensed period it took to record and mix the album, was released on November 5 1996, less than two months after Shakur, 25, was murdered in a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas strip, following close friend Mike Tyson’s fight with Bruce Seldon.
Shakur, rapping under the alias of Makaveli due to his admiration for the dictatorial leadership ideals presented in Nicolas Machiavelli’s political treatise The Prince, presents sinister aggression ( Against All Odds) and liberating activism ( White Man’s World) side-by-side, acutely aware that a black man must wear many masks in order to survive in America. The atmosphere of dread that permeates through Tupac Shakur’s dark 1996 masterpiece The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory is so heavy it can feel like you’re sinking in quick sand. Artist Ronald ‘Riskie’ Brent went from airbrushing t-shirts at the Compton Swap Meet to designing the cover for Tupac’s darkest masterpiece…
2PAC MAKAVELI ALBUM ARTWORK SERIES
Under Covers is a new series tracing the stories behind classic and groundbreaking album artworks.
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