She’s now bi-coastal, living in East Harlem and dashing out to LA at least once a month.Īfter featuring Segura’s art direction work for VanJess’ Homegrown cover in our roundup of the best album covers of 2021, we knew we had to speak to her directly about her practice. The Bronx-born designer is Dominican, attending 8th grade in the Dominican Republic and her first two years of college at the Parsons affiliate there, Altos De Chavon, before finishing up her degree at Parsons in New York. But an album is more than just its sound it represents a collaboration of many artists working in many mediums that have come together to create a collective piece.Īmaya Segura is one of those artists, and she works as a senior art director at Sony, helping to create some of the most exciting album art on record store shelves (and, yes, streamers). And judging by the anticipation around its release, it will be, many times over.When a new album drops, most of us focus on the music itself and the artist behind the tracks. It’s easy to read it as a sign of the times: Is this boom in bummer rap a reaction to the recession, or the sound of hip-hop shuffling into middle age? But more than anything, the sultry production gives Later a coherent vibe - it’s an album meant to be listened to from start to finish. Thank Me Later‘s downtempo beats, many by Canadian producer 40, call to mind Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak and Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon. He isn’t the most naturally charismatic MC, but he is one of the wittiest, packing his songs with clever images (“I’m 23/With a money tree”) and punch lines that land with a snap (“I live for the nights that I can’t remember/With the people I won’t forget”), even next to guests like Jay-Z, Young Jeezy, T.I. “This is really one of my dumbest flows ever/I haven’t slept in days,” he says in “Unforgettable.”ĭrake is in total command of a style that would have been hard to imagine dominating hip-hop a few years ago: He’s subtle and rueful rather than loud and lively emotionally transparent rather than thuggy.

The tempos are slow, the beats are awash in gauzy atmospherics, and Drake raps (and, surprisingly often, sings) in the voice of a guy who’s half-awake. It’s a shock to hear how softly - sluggishly, even - Drake announces himself on his official debut.

Thank me later album art