John Spain Art

Tru Judah The Healing Final

This is an album cover design from west coast rap artist Tru Judah. The concept was to show that he’s free. Free of sin (material things, false religion, old bad habits from his past life)

To do this I wanted to show that the man laying in the street died a violent death because he lived violent life. That was apart of the consequence of that lifestyle. He died in the inner city streets, the same streets where he hustled at.

Behind him are numerous store fronts. The fronts aren’t actual stores but they’re used to represent some of the things that hes escaping: prison, sex, drugs, alcohol. The buildings are dilapidated and vacant which is unfortunately synonymous with most inner city neighborhoods. I wanted to show him dying in the same harsh blocks he once roamed.

The Grim Reaper aka Death is hovering over him taking his life away. Now this is where the cover comes to life. His spirit have the option of going right or left. The street signs represents this. He can go down either road. The right , which is “Righteousness” or the left which is “Wickedness”.

One the right, is the most high ready to embrace his son with open arms and the left is Satan ready to offer a cash gift for choosing him instead of the lord.

The man decided to choose god and his spirit pure. His spirit is a youthful innocent child. This signifies his rebirth from a wicked individual to a young child with a second chance to make things right.

Satan is perplexed to why he wasn’t selected because the man lived such a volatile life, he was for certain that he would take the gifts and come his direction.

That sums up the concept, but for the actual design I wanted the style to be simple and readable. I wanted to emphasize the story behind the art, rather than the art itself. I kept it flat , 2-D and in a Saturday newspaper comic page kind of style. The goal is for the viewer to understand what to except from the music, not compete with the music. It’s important as an artist to know that your job is to complement the client and increase interest not make it about you.