The former lead art director of Kanye West's now-defunct Donda creative agency, Joe Perez, has started an Instagram account where he blesses Yeezus' followers by sharing concept files from his days with the company. On Monday, Perez sent fans into a frenzy when he revealed the cover art to a scrapped Kanye West album titled Chiraq.
In the caption, Perez explained that the idea was created in April 2015. Virgil Abloh manned the creative direction while Perez, JJJJound, Heron Preston, and Nate Brown handled the art direction. Bryan Rivera was also tapped as a design assistant. Perez admits that he "can't remember" much about the project because it was scrapped after just one round of edits.
"Rough concepts - Round 1 of 1," Perez wrote. "Possible album design and honestly can’t remember much past that since it was only a one round assignment."
Although Perez doesn't know much about the cover, it should be noted that Kanye West was approached by Spike Lee to play a part in his movie Chiraq. Kanye reportedly turned down the role, but this concept art was created just a few months before Chiraq opened in theaters.
Through his Options Archives Instagram account, Perez has given the world a peek into Kanye's creative process. By doing this, he's also revealing details about some of West's iconic projects. For example, Perez showed his followers a pre-Yeezus gif they created. At the time this was created, Kanye was toying with naming the album Thank God For Drugs.
