I had the honor of producing the entire album artwork and layout package for The N.O.C. album DINOSAUR. It was an extreme breath of fresh air working with these cats from Orlando, FL. They gave me free reign to pull together all of my media-junkie creative methods to bust out some sick visuals to compliment their amazing style and fresh talent.
Their debut album dropped July 4th 2009 is all about having a good time, hitting the dance floor, hitting the splif, chillin’ with the ladies and macs, and blowing urban minds with the lyrical tongue. Among the jive beats, bass, and ill-flavor you will find some soft political undertones. The N.O.C. keeps it collective with their own definition of the album D.I.N.O.S.A.U.R. which stands for: Delivering Images Never Ordinary…Simply Artist Using Reflection. Nothing better than working with highly creative individuals such as The N.O.C. which is an acronym for No Ordinary Cats.
I pulled out all the stops on the artwork for the album. The cover was fully customized using digital paint, photography montage, textures and effects. The entire outer cover artwork was created from the ground up, literally starting with the foreground buildings which I built in a very geometric mode of Photoshop. After the groundwork for the buildings and perspective was laid down I began to implement photos I had taken in my travels around Chicago and San Francisco. Once the background was there I began digitally painting the cover characters in Corel Painter. To finalize it I took more texture photos and effects such as road gravel, brick walls, neon lights, etc. It was an insane process but extremely fun to put together.
K Sos (leader of The N.O.C.) was great on giving me feedback and keeping up the link with me during the process. They were literally in the studio tracking and mixing while I was in my studio conquering this puzzle-piece of imagery. In coming up with the concept I laid down some sketches and the first one of these mock ups really stuck. Basically we wanted to do something that screamed “Dinosaur!” without being too literal. The subjectivity of the imagery comes from the idea that these cats are getting ready to blow the lid off of the hip-hop/dance scene with a ROAR! Taking that into consideration I wanted to render this megalithic T-Rex in the center of a downtown city block.
The figures in foreground running from the Dinosaur are 3-piece suiters, politicians, and corporate America. Hence, the popular US political figure heads for the Republican and Democratic parties (Elephant & Donkey men). The other individuals are my take on the rest of corporate and political America which are clowns, vampires, and zombies. The fact that these old politicians who look like they just rose from the grave, are here to suck you dry financially and of your given freedoms, and then put on a circus for the media and shielded public eye made them a real easy target to nail down visually. The N.O.C. is near so when you hear the roar your either beckoned in if your down with the underground or run like a rat if your too black & white about life!
Check out The N.O.C. and go buy their new album release DINOSAUR from Skinny Buddha Records. In addition to purchasing the album through Skinny Buddha, you will also receive a 12×12″ Cover Poster created by BeeryMethod. My favorite track on the disc is NB-1, which they titled after Mr. youknowwho…but really though this entire album is hot as lava rain!
You can get a taste and buy The N.O.C. DINOSAUR album here: NB-1
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