In 1993, after fascinating rap heads with his rapid-fire delivery on records like "I Can't Git With That" and "In My Lifetime," Jay Z inks a deal Payday Records. There was no blueprint, so we became the blueprint and template for everything to come. We were out in the clubs, living hard, working hard, and busting our ass to figure it out. Really the scene was building, it was Biggie, Puff, Jay Z, and Busta and people were grinding hard in order to build up what was a total underground movement heading toward the spotlight and moving into more popular culture. It wasn’t sort of like business first, all these contracts. Whether you was a producer, a rapper, etc., everybody wanted to be the best and it was healthy competition. Mannion: The best way to describe the scene at that time is: We were all fighting for our voices to be heard. Like I did the Smif-N-Wessun logo back in the day, I’ve done shit for Funkmaster Flex, I did stuff for Mad Lion, a lot of stuff for Nervous Records - basically, people knew me as the design cat. Vargas: In my time at The Source, I was able to meet people like Bonz Malone, Jon Shecter, and all those dudes that ran around at the and so I had a little bit of rapport for doing cool design shit and drawing. I’d work for Avedon during the day, from seven in the morning to nine at night, and then I’d go out to the clubs, which sort of began my hip-hop career. Then with my love of hip-hop, I moved to New York to work with Richard Avedon, arguably the greatest to ever touch a camera. So that was the beginning of my understanding. I loved the dark room, I loved the learning process, but more than anything I loved interacting with somebody and making a moment that documented that specific second in time but would last forever. So anybody that was just like fulfilling an art credit took photo, but I never approached it that way. Jonathan Mannion (Photographer): It was my senior year at Kenyon College, and everybody really signed up for photographer because it was kind of like a fluff class in a lot of ways.
#Jay z reasonable doubt cover tee full
At that time, there wasn’t a lot of illustration work in general, but I majored in illustration and was able to get full page in magazines. Worked a staff illustrator, contributing illustrator, and did a bunch of pieces. While I was in school, I did illustration at The Source for years. Īdrien Vargas (Art Director): So when I was like a sophomore or junior in college, I graduated college in '94, so about '92, I started working with The Source. In telling that story, REVOLT connected with Reasonable Doubt's art director Adrien Vargas and photographer Jonathan Mannion to recall the making of the artwork that is one of the most iconic images emblazoned on an album sleeve.Īs hip-hop was continuing to bubble in the early '90s, the genre slowly begun expanding from out of the underground and into the spotlight, thanks to the growing popularity of college radio and fledging rap publications like Stress, Rap Pages and The Source. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. More than just an image, the cover art tells a story of determination, angst and power. While the story of Reasonable Doubt has been told over and over again, the tale of how the iconic portrait, which shows Marcy Houses' famous son exuding an underworld superhero presence à la Robin Hood, has been hardly told. As the first release under Roc-A-Fella Records, the brainchild of Jay, Kareem "Biggs" Burke and Damon Dash, the full-length debut presented moments, accolades, and opportunities that continue to be the stuff of legend over 20 years later.īut before the world got a chance to hear Jay’s seminal and personal touchstone in the summer of '96, another meticulous creation took place in the months prior - the artwork. Initially proposed for an April drop, and not long after a June 14 arrival date, the project arrived on June 25, just one week shy of Independence Day. On June 25, 1996, after getting pushed back twice, due to recording delays, Jaÿ-Z released his debut album Reasonable Doubt.