Last week, Pop Smoke’s estate revealed the initial album artwork for the rapper’s posthumous release Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon – and the court of opinion swayed heavily with disapproval of Virgil Abloh’s, Chief Executive Officer of Off-White, creative direction.
The original cover was met with an influx of banter and criticism spewed from Smoke’s loyal fanbase and the internet, which remains undefeated. Steven Victor, Universal Music Group Senior A&R Executive and head of Pop Smoke’s record label, made a remarkably swift decision with declaring that his team would be “making a change.”
This past Friday, when Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon was released across all digital streaming platforms, it was clearly evident that the referenced changes were alive and well, receiving support from Ryder Ripps (Kanye West, PUSHA-T and Grimes) – the creative director for the Pop Smoke estate since May.
Candidly speaking, Ripps wasn’t initially too pleased with Virgil’s graphic design, taking to Instagram with a since deleted post that touched on how he felt in the heat of the moment. “This man took the entire chrome rose concept from me, ruined it with careless graphic design and then wrote some bullshit about it,” the post read.
In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Ryder Ripps offers perspective on the decision behind changing the album artwork and the current status of his relationship with the Off-White CEO.
Read here.
