Allow me to introduce you all to Jason Branch and his Yeezus Project. JB, as he’s known to his friends, is an extremely talented visual arts creator and his latest project will blow you away. The collection of art that JB dubs his “Yeezus Project” represents the missing artwork that Kanye West left out of his most recent album Yeezus. As many may remember, Kanye did not drop a single leading up to the release of the album and provided no album cover for the hard cover of the CD. Many pondered the reasons behind this but Jason found the opportunity to use it as inspiration for his latest work. Below you can check out the art collection JB has provided for each song on Kanye’s album. 10 brilliant pieces of work that could’ve easily been considered for each record’s single cover. You can read an excerpt below from JB himself on the inspiration behind his work. Hit the jump to see the artwork for the Yeezus tracks with brief descriptions behind each one! Preview each picture in the gallery and find Jason’s contact information below as well.
Cracking open the gift from the rapgod that is the Yeezus album I wasn’t surprised to find no album artwork. As fans we all had heard the rumors and seen the photos of the naked album. Spinning through the disk a couple times I noticed the imagery clever lyrics were to vivid to go without visuals. What started out as an idea for a minimalist design artwork for an artist described minimalist album turned out to be nothing of the sort. The designs began to reflect the lyrics. I listened to the songs over and over before and while I made their respective artwork.
Magna Carta Holy Grail Project coming soon
Stay tuned for the design portfolio at jasonlamarbranch.com
Follow on Instagram at @jasonlamarbranch
The Cover: I thought it would be cool to juxtapose all the artwork on top of each other to make the cover. The album was this crazy mix of sounds new age modern upbeat edm vibes mixed with a hint of classic kanye and some reggae. The cover should only mirror the chaos that is the production genius.
Guilt Trip: This is easily one of most symbolic pieces I have done. The whole piece is a personification of guilt. Starting with the elephant: an elephant never forgets and that’s where guilt stems from, always remembering and holding on to something, that’s guilt. The glass represented the self entrapment; how ones traps themselves with their own feelings. The elephant trapping himself in the glass. The ice cream cherry topping was just to symbolize what people do when they’re depressed. They eat. ( was originally going to have Kim Kardashian in the glass, still might do it. )
On sight: I just had fun with it. Listening to the beat that’s exactly what I felt. Colorful chaos. The beat pretty much made this by itself.
Send it up: I wanted to be quite literal with this one. The funniest line in the song is when Ye explains what Yeezus is in this particular instance “Tight dress dancing next to him Yeezus just rose again” I thought that was great so I decided not to take the provocative route but still make yeezus rise. The rose in the grass is me being literal.
Black Skinhead: What if Yeezy was a black skinhead I said to myself. So I shaved his head mad him bald and dropped half his face for a silhouette. Black Skinhead indeed.
Blood on the leaves: Possibly my favorite. I originally wanted to hang the leaf as tribute to Billie Holiday. The submerged wedding ring represents the relationship Kanye raps about being hung in the balance. He feels as if he has been left hanging hence the blood on the leaves. I wanted to hang the leaf to symbolize the lynching but knew the symbolism might fly over heads. I didn’t do this one justice.
Hold my Liquor: This was merely a whim. It was the first one I did that inspired it all. It didn’t turn to well which pushed me to do the rest better. This one sort of just happened.
New slaves: Materialism portrayed at its finest. The wheel barrow from days of slavery and the materials items inside show us who the new masters are. Do you see the blood on the leaves?
I’m in it: By far the most provocative song on the record and I wanted to have the artwork reflect that but I refrained. But you get the picture from the artwork. What’s the most subtle non provocative body part I could use but you’d still get the picture. LIPS.
I am a god: If god had a typeface this would be it.
Bound 2: This took me forever. I had no clue what to do so I just listened to the song.
