Colorful, abstract collages are not the first thing that come to mind when you think of a rap song, but a new video by Chinese artist Lei Lei shows that these two art forms can work in perfect harmony. For his video This Is Not a Time to Lie, Lei Lei has created animation to go along with Atlanta rapper J-Fever's lyrics and Li Xingyu's music.
“We don’t really do gangster stuff with so many f-words,” says J-Fever. “We only do rap with the use of Asian language, so it’s more like a poem,” a statement that makes sense considering the rapper's words seem more like hard-to-decipher stanzas than a song.
Lei Lei designed the visuals for J-Fever's words using vintage book covers. The 27-year-old animation artist comes from a background of graphic design, short cartoon, graffiti, and music. He also founded the animation group Raydesign Studio. His work for This Is Not a Time to Lie look like Matisse's colorful, paper collages put in motion.
