More Photoshop Fun: Mix Tape Designs

The wonders of Photoshop... grab a bunch of unrelated pics and put it all together!

Somewhere between 2003 and 2007, somebody told rappers that mix tapes were the new hustle. (I think it was 50 Cent) Everybody had a mix-tape and they used it to their advantage. While 95% of them sucked, there was a lot of money to be made until the hustle faded a few years ago. (DJ mix tapes are the way to go! They let the music speak for itself and sometimes there free!) I always thought rapper related mix-tapes were a mess... freestyles over recognizable beats, unreleased tracks that should have stayed that way, bad recordings and loud annoying rants in between and during the tracks of artists hyping the release of an album. (ask Whookid or DJ Clue) The cover art (if there was ever any) was usually loud, messy and unbelievable (yet way better than those old Master P covers) When done right, the design can be eye catching. Back in 2007, a few of my friends asked me to do a mix-tape cover for them and it was hard to pass up the chance to give it a try.

I wanted to have fun with this Paw Ray mix-tape cover. It was Hyphy related (Big Von spoiled all the fun) and the use of bright colors would be a great advantage to make it pop off to the masses. Like any other project, I start with the main folks (separate photos) and clip the pics nicely, dropping them over a black backdrop like a green screen in the movies, LOL. (see top left) Add a national monument in the backdrop and some smoke in the bottom for visual effects (see top right) and we're almost done. The wording is the fun part, my homie was preaching to me how the title should always be as big as the cover art... if not equal (Mix-tape design 101, lol) and added some bright blues and yellows to make it pop off. I think the feel of the cover works, if anything folks would pick it up and look at it. (see bottom left) The back cover art is basically elements taken from the front and the colors for the tracks are bright and bold... just had to make sure it complimented the cover. (see bottom right)

While I did my fair share of mix-tape designs in the past, the hype seems to have died down drastically in the music world for mix-tapes on demand. (I still take in work when I have the time) I wonder what the next big hustle in Hip-Hop will be?