Album Cover of the Month |

June

The Last Poets

I asked my brilliant friend Aina to model for me in this project, and asked if she had any ideas on an album she would like to do for it. Without hesitation she said her father’s album, Abiodun Oyewole from The Last Poets. While this album’s importance is obvious standing on its own. We couldn't have chosen a better recreation to do in this political climate where human rights are being stripped away left and right.

The Last Poets are spoken word revolutionaries for the black experience in America. Their music has been sampled by many artists since this album’s release in 1970. In Aina’s words, “The Last Poets aren’t just legendary, they are family. My father co-founded the group in 1968 and the world of music as revolution, the precursor of hip-hop was born. The times are different and yet not much has changed. TLP, as artists often do, painted the picture of oppression, anger, despair, revolution, hope and renewal that looks a lot like the setting of our present day. What have we learned? What can we still learn? How can we mobilize through our words and revolutionize through our actions? When the revolution comes you will discover that it started within you.

I used quotes from the album to make graffiti art that was later superimposed onto the images. I used Aina’s favorite track as inspiration, ‘When the Revolution Comes.’

Here are a few excerpts that were used as inspiration in the final drafting of the images.

When the revolution comes

(When the revolution comes)

When the revolution comes

The cost of revolution is 360 degrees

Understand the cycle that never endsUnderstand the beginning to be the end and nothing is in between but space and time that I make, or you make, to relate, or not to relate, to the world outside my mind, your mind.

And party and bullshit

And party...
Some might even die before the revolution comes

Black Lives Matter

Enjoy