Dec 26, 2015

Kendrick undoubtedly has great album covers that he is known for putting a lot of time and effort into. Over time I've come to notice two common themes between the album covers that you may find interesting and noteworthy. A lot of this stuff is very obvious but I thought it would be nice to bring it up for discussion anyway.

This is mainly in reference to his album covers since Section.80.

Conflicting Imagery
Each album cover contains conflicting imagery or some form of juxtaposition. For example:

• Section.80: The Section.80 cover shows a juxtaposition between being sinful and being righteous. The cover contains various items, including a crack pipe, bullets, condoms, drugs etc., that many people consider to be sinful and evil. In contrast, these things are right beside a Bible, which many people believe to be righteous, positive and sacred.

• GKMC: The GKMC cover shows a juxtaposition between innocence and immorality/impurity. This is displayed with at least two things in this album art. Firstly, the beer bottle being so close to the baby bottle, with the beer bottle being seen as impure and the baby bottle being regarded as pure and unassociated with evil. Secondly, the relative holding young Kendrick is throwing up a g--- sign which represents immorality, but it is juxtaposed by a young Kendrick who at this stage in his life is just a child who represents innocence.

• To p---- A Butterfly: The TPAB cover exhibits conflicting imagery of power. The cover presents an image of The White House, arguably the most politically powerful place on Earth, and a group of young black men from the ghetto, who would usually have no to very little political power. These powerless young men occupying the most powerful building in the world shows conflict and juxtaposition in the form of power struggle.

Representation of songs
Each of these album covers also have a direct representation of at least one song on the respective album. For example:

• Section.80: The cover has weed sitting on top of the Bible which is directly portraying the song "Kush & Corinthians". Furthermore, the prescription tablets could refer to "A.D.H.D."; the bullets and crack pipe could refer to "Ronald Reagan Era"; and the condoms to both "Tammy's Song" and "Keisha's Song".

• GKMC: The 40 ounce beer bottle directly represents the song "Swimming Pools" regarding Kendrick's family and friend's dependance on alcohol. Also, the g--- sign which is being thrown up by the man holding young Kendrick strongly portrays issues largely discussed in "Good Kid" and "M.A.A.D City", amongst other songs on the album where g--- issues are focused on.

• GKMC Deluxe Edition: Also, on the deluxe cover, Kendrick's mother's van directly refers to the song "Sherane" and the various skits throughout the album where the van is mentioned, particularly by Kendrick's mother.

• TPAB: This cover completely embodies the ideas behind the song "Hood Politics" where Kendrick talks about "DemoCRIPs and ReBLOODicans". The cover probably subtely represents other songs on the album too but the most clear connection is with "Hood Politics".

• Overly Dedicated: I wasn't planning to really talk about Kendrick's mixtapes, but I've thought of another representation from Overly Dedicated. I've never been able to really make out what the creature on the front cover of OD actually is, but I'm guessing that it could be the female alien representing the girl from the song "Alien Girl". It might be a stretch, but it seems possible.

Sorry that this is a little lengthy, it actually went on longer than I anticipated...

Are there any themes or hidden messages that you've come across with Kendrick's albums? Are there any more things that you can think of that can connect them? Are more songs represented by the album artwork in subtle ways?

Let a brother know your thoughts. Thanks for reading.

 

Dec 26, 2015

@Loyalty @Koolo can you guys feature this? the OP is really well done and talks about a cool topic

 

Jan 24, 2016

At the same time, kendrick's album covers are better than drake's actual albums.

 

Jan 24, 2016

Drake stan spotted

oh no, its the same clown michael scott

 

Jan 24, 2016

Hey guys. I originally made this thread because I was genuinely interested in Kendrick's album covers, how they relate to the music and the underlying themes they represent. I just thought it would be a good topic for discussion and just wanted to share my observations and thoughts.

It wasn't an attempt to say that Kendrick has the best album covers in the world or that everything Kendrick does is perfect, it was just an opportunity to discuss something I personally thought was interesting.

Nevertheless, I'm happy for people to disagree and even think that it's silly, over the top or ridiculous. I appreciate everybody's opinion and point of view, particularly if it's done respectfully. Thank you for taking the time to read this thread and for sharing your points of view on the topic.

 

Jan 24, 2016

This clown even made fun of chief the goat...

took me 12 hours to see that Michael was a bad poster.

 

Dec 26, 2015

I'm glad that you wrote this. Not only was it a great read, but it made me think about the process behind creating the music within each album. The amount of thought put into each album is astounding. And you can tell Kendrick is close with the ideas that hes representing in his music.

 

Dec 26, 2015

I just figured GKMC was a typical ghetto polaroid tbh.

 

Dec 26, 2015

NIce read. Never noticed the bible on the Section 80 cover tbh

 

Jan 24, 2016

"If you guys could actually support your arguments"

says the guy who thinks travis had the best verses on rodeo, says the guy who thinks juicy j didn't renegade travis on his own s---.

 

Jan 24, 2016

OP is on point, there's some things missing that kendrick himself mentioned in a few interviews... I'll try to come with the sources my man.

 

Jan 24, 2016

At least slime season 1s cover had a statue of Oedipus

Now that's art

 

Jan 24, 2016

LOL THEY'RE EVEN OVERRATING THE ALBUM COVERS