I have a huge poster in my room of
the Biggie Smalls album, Ready to die from 1994. The cover features a one year
old black baby sitting down and right blow him is the title of the album, “ready
to die.” The entire poster is in black and white but the “die” is shaded red.
The art of the album and the meaning of it to me is an example postmodernism.
Yes this is the early 90s, but the same problems then are still happing 20
years later.
The idea behind the cover of the
album is to show how much crime is affecting the United States, showing that
not just adults but children are being killed because of gang violence. So “ready
to die” meaning a new born child is at high risk of getting killed, so be ready
for death. What makes this postmodern is
that it depicts gang violence in America through music. It gives us sight of what is right in front of
us, but we don’t see.
The art work of the album is very simple
but yet detailed at the same time. The entire album is black and white,
including the baby. At the very top it says “the notorious BIG”. All the
letters are lower case except for “BIG” which is also shaded red with a black
box around it. And at the very bottom is “ready to die” and “die” is shaded
red. What makes the artwork of the album postmodern is the all red in the
lettering. The red shows death, blood and pain.
Nice poster! I found it interesting how there is a correlation between the red lettering at the top of the poster and the bottom. Also, the baby really adds a strong effect to the entire feel of the poster, making it very postmodern.
ReplyDeleteI really like your connection between a newborn baby and how he is already at risk of violence.
ReplyDelete