Source: The Washington Post / Getty
According to XXL:
Announcing the news to fans on Twitter, the D.C. MC posted, “Just finalized my album cover today.no fancy big name artist. Jus a super cool kid I met on twitter. I’m grateful to have such talented fans.”
XXL found out that the artist is 22-year-old Dedrick Strong, otherwise known as artist VHS. According to VHS, Wale contacted him a few weeks ago on Twitter to see if he’d be interested in creating the Shine cover art. VHS, who was at his job at the time when he got the news, immediately got to work on the concept, which will be revealed at Wale’s disclosure.
“Working on this cover with Wale was very fast-paced because he knew early what he wanted and how he wanted it executed,” VHS tells XXL. “I was nervous for the most part ’cause this is the biggest thing I’ve done thus far but Wale is a cool dude. He helped the process go by smoothly and also gave me some words of encouragement.”
While this kind of opportunity is a first for the Dallas native, he’s been an artist all his life. “My dad had me drawing since I could remember,” VHS shares. “I don’t remember not ever doing anything art-related. I don’t really specialize in any one particular art form. I’ve been doing photography and graphic design for two years also working on clothing.”
H/T XXL
