Despite the fact that Virgil Abloh has created in many different mediums he never made his own music. Despite this he has made a lasting impact on the music community. When he was first in intern at Fendi he was there with Kanye West. This connection proved to be very helpful for both of them throughout their careers. Virgil is credited with being the artistic director with a number of some of Kanye’s best work. One of these works is Kanye’s 2010 album my beautiful dark twisted fantasy. Virgil is credited as the art director for this album and he picked the artist George condo to paint several different covers. The cover did not come without controversy though. The original cover featured a nude phoenix with no arms. When downloading the album on apple the image was pixelated and the CD was not allowed to be sold in Walmart due to the image. This was later substituted by The image of a ballerina holding a glass that we all know now.
In 2011 Virgil once again worked with Kanye on his collaborative album with Jay-Z entitled watch the throne. Virgil was once again the artistic director and chose the designer Riccardo Tisci to design the cover. He was Giovanni creative director at the time. This artwork led to Virgil earning a Grammy nomination for best recording package.
Virgil also worked on Kanye West’s Yeezus album cover, but he did not only do work with Kanye West. A$AP Rocky 2013 album Long live ASAP featured Virgil as the creative director. Virgil conceived the idea for the video for the song fashion killa and also developed a set designs for Rocky’s early shows leading up to the album’s release. Fashion killa was the first video that Virgil worked on.
My personal favorite cover that was designed by Virgil would be Westside Gunn’s 2020 Album pray for Paris. Gunn Said he wanted to have the cover represent Paris in a grimy way. He had been a fan of Virgil’s earlier brand Pyrex vision. Three covers were sent to him From Virgil one of which had an old picture of Westside in a Pyrex 23 shirt. He said he chose the David and Goliath cover because it looks like something you might see in Paris.
Some more albums that Virgil served as a creative director for are Big Sean’s Dark Side Paradise, 2 Chainz’s based on a T.R.U story and Pusha T’s My Name is My Name.
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