Famed NY rapper Pop Smoke is scheduled to release his latest album on Friday. But the album artwork is going to have to be changed at the last minute.
Pop Smoke, real name of Bashar Barakah Jackson, was murdered in February of this year. But his posthumous debut album is scheduled to drop on Friday, July 3.
Yesterday the album’s artwork was revealed, and Pop Smoke’s fans staged a REVOLT. They were not at all prepared for the cover art to look this bad.
Designed by Louis Vuitton designer Virgil Abloh, the cover art was, if not universally hated, critiqued by everyone after its reveal. The artwork was posted on Monday by Steven Victor, the head of Pop Smoke’s label Victor Victor Worldwide, on Instagram.
What was so bad about it? Well first, it appears that Virgil Abloh literally photoshopped the first image result on Google for Pop Smoke
Second, it appears that Virgil used a free version of Picart (very basic photo editing software) for the images:
Almost instantly, Pop Smoke fans weighed in on the design, which many felt seemed rushed, or even worse, just plain bad. The reaction was quick, and so overwhelming that Victor responded to it within a few hours, indicating that he and the label would revisit the cover. “BRB. MAKING A CHANGE,” he tweeted. “POP WOULD LISTEN TO HIS FANS!” Abloh, meanwhile, deleted the image from his Instagram.