Live Brief: Secret 7"
After we got our brief I went onto the Secret 7" website to gather some more information on what we needed to do.
I had a listen to the songs on selection for the brief and I decided I wanted to select the song which I enjoyed listening to the most. This came to be Public Enemy - Harder Than You Think, which I have embedded below:
I decided I needed to get into the habit of listening to the song to both get into the mindset of the brief, capture the whole feeling of the song, and also get pumped for the design process. I have a habit of listening to music which is related to my brief because it influences my decision making as well as my overall design outcome.
My next research direction was to look at their past cover art work from previous albums and singles. Below I have showed the ones which I found, these will influence me in one way or another.
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| Yo! Bum Rush The Show - 1987 |
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| It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back - 1988 |
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| Fear Of A Black Planet - 1990 |
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| Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Back |
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| Greatest Misses - 1992 |
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| Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age - 1994 |
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| He Got Game - 1998 |
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| There's A Poison Goin' On - 1999 |
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| Revolverlution - 2002 |
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| New Whirl Odor - 2005 |
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| Rebirth Of A Nation - 2005 |
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| How You Sell Soul - 2007 |
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| Most Of My Heroes - 2012 |
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| The Evil Empire Of Everything - 2012 |
None of their album artwork inspired me much apart from the 2012 album 'Most Of My Heroes' which had some interesting aesthetics which relate to the album name and message. The rest seemed too 'gangster' and 'black cultured' involving just photos of them all in a group with an upwards camera angle looking very 'tough'.
I wanted to see examples of last years work and what came of it so I looked for more information, I found this youtube video showcasing the final event for the 2012 competition and it really inspired me, it also got me interested in actually going to this year's exhibition day.
I also wanted to see examples of different record sleeve designs and found a blog post on creative review about the best record sleeves designed in the month of November 2012. Ones I particularly liked were these:
Obviously we are not allowed to use type in any way according to the rules of our brief so I am going to have to avoid this at all costs.
Lyrics to the song which I have chosen are as follows:
What goes on?
Rollin stones of the rap game not braggin
Lips bigger than jagger , not saggin
Spell it backwards
Im a leave it at that..
That aint got nothin to do with rap
Check the facts expose those cats
Who pose as heros and take advantage of blacks
Your governments gangster so cut the crap
A war goin on so where you at?
Fight the power comes great responsiblity
F the police but whos stoppin you from killin me?
Disasters , fiascos over a loop by pe
If its an i instead of we
Believin tv
Spittin riches , bitches, and this new thing about snitches
Watch them asses move the masses switches
System dissed them but barely missed her
My soul intention to save my brothers and sisters
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
[verse 2]
Screamin gangsta 20 years later
Of course endorsed while consciousness faded
New generations believing them fables
Gangster boogie on two turntables
Show no love so its easy to hate it
Desecrated while the coroner waited
Any given sunday so where yall rate it?
Wit slavery, lynching , and them drugs infiltrated
Im like that doll chuckie , baby
Keep comin back to live love life like i'm crazy
Keep it movin risin to the top
Doug fresh clean livin you dont stop
Revolution means change
Dont look at me strange
So i cant repeat what other rappers be sayin
You dont stand for something
You fall for anything
Harder than you think
Its a beautiful thing
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
[verse 3]
So its time to leave you a preview
So you too can review what we do
20 years in this business
How you sell sell soul, g wiz
People bear witness
Thank you for lettin us be ourself
So dont mind me if i repeat myself
These simple lines be good for your health
To keep them crime rhymes on the shelf
Live life love like you just dont care
5000 leaders never scared
Bring the noise its the moment they fear
Get up still a beautiful idea
Get up
Throw yo hands in the air
Get up show no fear
Get up if yall really care
Pe 20 years
Now get up
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
Get up
Hard...just like that
I found an article on the song which described it, criticised it and praised it perfectly.
“Harder Than You Think” is the kind of epic statement that few have ever done better than Public Enemy, a blast of sound and lyric that links the chains of tradition into an unstoppably powerful force. The track also consciously asserts P.E.’s continuing, though changing, importance in the larger conversation: That “Harder Than You Think” opens with Flav’s reprise of his signature introduction to the group’s early single “Public Enemy #1” is only the most obvious moment of recall. The guitars which guide this spare beginning gives way to the deep swell of a full R&B horn section, whose triumphant herald provides perfect support for one of Chuck D’s most intense recent performances. Unlike many of his “conscious” contemporaries and followers, Chuck’s always understood that the most intellectually or politically aware lyrics will mean nothing if they’re not accompanied by an accordingly memorable backing track, and—while he hasn’t always succeeded in this regard—“Harder Than You Think” sounds like it can move mountains.
Despite Chuck’s thunderous, relentless flow, the song’s chorus contains nothing but the horns and Flavor Flav’s stabbing repetitions of “just like that,” a piecing combination that—if only temporarily—washes away every memory of Flav’s ignominious reality-TV career: The Greatest Hype Man In The World once again frees himself from the Tar Baby, and summons the spirits.
The lyric itself is certainly of a piece with the glut of admonitions that P.E. and others have made a staple element of their recorded output, but it accomplishes something slightly different, and more valuable: Chuck’s verses primarily criticize rap and rappers for not being willing or able to grow up, instead staying bound to the styles and symbols that the genre’s been selling (and white folks have been buying) for two decades. While we could certainly debate the degree to which this accusation is simplistic, the arrested cultural development observed by Chuck D has been on the minds of plenty of folks, young and old, throughout the hip-hop nation in the past few years: Nas, whose debut album came out after Public Enemy’s great period was over, even declared hip-hop “dead” in his compelling 2006 single, but the older, wiser Chuck D isn’t willing to give up the ghost just yet. Instead, he argues that the strength which hip-hop always possessed, and must continue to exhibit, comes through mature recognition, a quality which (like PE, and hip-hop itself) remains “harder than you think,” the double meaning of which, Chuck points out, “is a beautiful thing.”
It is a truly remarkable recording, the best Public Enemy track since the golden era. It captures their musical scope and lyrical precision in a way that some have forgotten, and many more have sadly never experienced. (While I’m not gonna pretend that it’ll be a hit, I know that I can slip “Harder Than You Think” into the mix with Kanye West, Lil Wayne or the other true-funk soldiers who currently populate the charts much more easily than I could 99% of the current crop of “conscious” rap.) This is a work of immense proportions, in many ways a corollary to Johnny Cash’s stunning reading of “Hurt,” in which PE similarly confronts the weight of continuing, complicated struggle. Unlike Cash’s existential gravity, though, Chuck D, Flavor Flav and comrades tap into still-deep reservoirs of (Black) power to ready themselves, and their spiritual sons and daughters, for the coming fight. Many in hip-hop’s first generation try to stay young, and wind up looking older than they ever should have feared. Public Enemy, rather, is celebrating their maturity, and manages to sound younger than they have in years.
This song is basically a representation of their career and success, inspiring to work hard at what you love and proving that they worked hard to get where they are. An amazing song all in all through meaning and music, and I am not a hip-hop fan whatsoever.
Now I have studied the meaning of the song, the group and it's history, I feel ready to start on my thumbnail ideas for the record sleeve design.
After completing my thumbnail ideas on my design sheets I had a selection of favourites I wanted to work into. But one in particular I absolutely loved. This consisted of the face of Flavor Flav illustrated and built up into different sections to represent the years of hard work they put into their music to get themselves where they are today - which is what the song has a meaning of.
I was pretty happy with the sketch I did with the pursed lips, raybans and slanted cap and so I decided to overline it with fine liner correcting my sketch as I went along. I got really into it and forgot to take a photo of it before the fine liner but this is the piece.
After it was sketched out I put it into illustrator, vector traced it, corrected that again and added my colours.
I wanted to make a second variation with the other primary member of the group to see if it worked any better, the process follows below:
After finishing it and comparing it to my previous one, I wasn't as happy with it as the first so I decided to just keep to the first. When it was submitted, I ended up with 701 submission views and became 11th place in votes in the category which I was dead proud of.
Sadly they didn't get back to me so it wont get printed, however I was proud to see friends on the course get selected in help of the cause.
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