Shatta Wale's 'Reign' album cover is 100% black excellence

Publish date: 2024-08-23

Nothing tops the 'Abbey Road' album cover by the Beatles. The picture of the boys from Liverpool walking on the zebra crossing on their way to the studio is perhaps the most famous album cover of all time.

For 80s kid like myself, Michael Jackson in all of his coco-sheen glory on 'Thriller' is a memorable album cover that reminds us of moonwalks and epic music videos.

Rap music came out in the 90s and the album cover of DMX'ssophomore album 'Flesh of my Flesh, Blood of my Blood' shot by Hip-Hop photographer Jonathan Mannion would live on forever.

I also have my odd pick of Nas wearing an orange velour sweat suit and rocking enough ice to reverse global warming on the cover of 'Stillmatic'.

An album cover is meant to induce excitement and give fans/music listeners and the curious a snapshot into the mind of the artist or band. A great example of this is the Fela Anikulapo-Kuti albums designed by Nigerian illustrator Lemi Ghariokwu.

Some might argue that with the digitalization of music into mp3 files, there has been a decline of layered album covers that can stand as legitimate artworks that can hang on your wall.

With album covers these days being more of identity tags than singular works of art, it is rare to find an album cover that strikes something deep in you.

The album 'Reign' by Ghanaian dancehall act Shatta Wale boasts of an album cover that stands out from first glance.

The Reign album cover is a medium close up shot of Shatta Wale who has his eyes closed. His dark skin has been digitally enhanced to matte black. On his neck is a gold chain. The top layer of his hair is dyed gold and above it is a little white crown. Shatta Wale also has two earrings on his right ear.

The backdrop serves as a blackboard for white letterings ranging from a biblical verse where the name of the album is gotten from and Shatta Wale's imperial title as the dancehall monarch.

The Reign album cover is aesthetically pleasing to the eye but when you look deeper, you discover stronger themes.

This album cover doesn't come off as the work of a graphic designer fiddling with photoshop and a high-resolution image of the artist.

The man behind the striking visuals is Kwame Kyei-Yamoah who works with Echo House Ghana. In a brief interview with Pulse, he breaks down how the album cover came about.

Who came up with the idea for the album?

I did. It all started when Julio (Shatta’s manager) reached out to me to start work on the album art. We had previously spoken about me working on Reign album art after I worked on the artwork for the “After the Storm” album so all he had to do was give me the go-ahead to start work.

Playing on 'rain' and also Shatta’s domination in the dancehall music scene was the inspiration for the name Reign and once I had the name, I immediately knew where I wanted to go with it.

Can you break down the concept of the artwork?

At first glance, there’s a feeling of darkness within the artwork; the almost pitch black skinned upper torso of Shatta Wale against a dense background of typography. His head is bowed to portray him being crowned just like in the coronation of a king. I chose to use three colours because the now famous Trinity symbol sparked the frenzy for the album: black and white symbolizing the duality of good and evil, right and wrong, and the gold representing royalty.

The background with all typography is made up of words that have something to do with Shatta Wale. This type of layout style is often adopted by magazines and newsletters. This is to represent how Shatta Wale is always the centre of the news.

Some of the prominent words are his name “SHATTA WALE”, “REIGN” which is from the Bible verse, Exodus 15:18 “The Lord shall reign forever and ever”, “MAJESTY” which is his son’s name but also represents the generations yet to come, and “KING” written with the Reign trinity symbol “KI|IG” representing his reign in the industry and beyond.

The colours black and gold are very dominant on the album cover. Do they represent Ghana's history with gold and association with black beauty?

Yes. The blackness of his skin definitely represents his African origin and his hard work while the gold in the artwork represents wealth, royalty and the reward for the hard work.

The colours don’t only represent Ghana, but African as a whole. He’s not only for Ghana but Africa’s Dancehall King.

Does Shatta Wale's hair represent his crown? I guess you were going with the concept that black people have a spiritual connection with their hair?

Yes. His hair is his crown just like every African man or woman. At first, I made it black as well then, I realized that it actually did resemble a crown on his head so I enhanced it just to make it more visible.

Did you take any inspiration from Rick Ross' 'Rather You Than Me' album?

As a visual artist, I get inspiration from everything I see. It comes from the Internet, on TV, on the streets; everything around me. I didn’t set out to create Rick Ross’ cover. I had an idea and using my skill and knowledge in graphic design, layout and typography I created the Reign album cover. In the end, it just coincidentally happened to have some resemblance with the Rick Ross cover.

'Reign' was released on October 13, 2018 and you can read the review

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Shatta Wale's 'Reign' album cover is 100% black excellence