David Sparks

If you know me, you know I LOVE Wu-Tang Clan. There is one aspect of the band/group that has always driven me crazy though. Their visuals. The album covers and designs have always left me feeling cheated. Like the full experience was never realized. Like they’ve been misunderstood and mishandled this whole time and that they’ve never been told or know any better.

If you know me, you know I LOVE Wu-Tang Clan. There is one aspect of the band/group that has always driven me crazy though. Their visuals. The album covers and designs have always left me feeling cheated. Like the full experience was never realized. Like they’ve been misunderstood and mishandled this whole time and that they’ve never been told or know any better.

I wish they would let me design their album covers. The subject matter they rap about and particularly the eastern aspects like kung fu, shaolin monks, religion, various martial arts references, old movie samples and dialog. Even NYC & Staten Island. The wealth of inspiration to draw from is and always has been endless.  The ability to reinforce their identity established in their lyrics via previously listed subject matter through visual design elements is maybe better than any other group or band i can think of. For sure hip hop. They are more rich with original content than almost anybody else.

I think its one thing that metal, hardcore, punk, rock n roll, indie etc bands have all mastered. Even lame ass hipster bands know they have a look and they reinforce it when they can. MC’s and Rappers live it, look it and breath it just the same. But they seemingly forget or take shortcuts on the design. T.I. for example seems to present at least some semblance of an identity that he’s high class rapping about every day stuff. This is what you get from his CD covers. Jay-Z on the other hand is all over the map.

Rap and Hip Hop have only done this in one way with exceptions and they all do it the same. They also deviate from the path most times. The problem is… not all rap and hip hop is the same. Even though i HATE Kanye hes an exception. Teaming up with Kaws and various artists to create a look that matches what you think his sounds would visualize into. the poppy attitude his tracks have a feeling that is backed up by the attitude of the visuals. When you think Kanye you think about these colors and shapes along side certain songs and hooks.

Tribe called quest had a look and stuck with the the traditional African color pallet.

There is no reason, for a band rich with solid legitimate content like Wu-Tang to have these lame album covers that have no valid relation to them as people, artists or the lyrics. Each one is completely different. They even have what most bands lack. An incredible logo mark that functions perfectly without any accompanying type. I have a Wu-Tang belt buckle on right now. When you see the shape you know its Wu-Tang despite not saying it anywhere. That is so rare for a band to have, and such a luxury I’m not entirely sure I can come up with a good enough example to convey its significance. I’m sure their best selling merchandise consists of the yellow logo on something. Like a black t-shirt. Because fans like their brand. Wu-Tang doesnt seem to know what their sitting on or care too much about their brand outside of the music they create.

As you can see from some of the albums… there’s no real representation of the group in any of them. No visual clues as to what their about. None of them are necessarily bad designs. They’re all just opportunities missed/cop outs. The first one sets the tone for what could have been very interesting. Faceless Urban Ninjas but then the ball is dropped swiftly with the Forever album. I will say my personal taste, that one is bad. the squished image of a hug show, unrelated head shots transformed strange and the pointless globe behind the too large logo.

I may not be the best artist for the job, but i could do better than what they currently have had to date and I understand branding and marketing better than most artists.

While the bellow falls a little short of its potential, like i said. I may not be the best artist for the job. but this is definitely close to what i had in mind. More of a mixture of hip hop/nyc style with eastern traditional style. It’s not incredible by any means, but its better than the above in my opinion simply because you get a feel for what wu-tang represents.