UPDATED 6/30, 3:45 p.m. ET: Conceptual artist Ryder Ripps hit Instagram to repost Virgil Abloh's caption on the scrapped cover art, adding his own caption in which he accused Abloh of stealing the "entire chrome rose concept" from him.
"This man took the entire chrome rose concept from me, ruined it with careless graphic design and then wrote some bullshit about it,” Ripps began. “So sad that someone would care this little about art, design and the memory of a human who was so loved to wrap his name up in lies and theft."
Ripps concluded his message saying, "For a fuller picture of this guys history of theft check the link in my bio.” Ripps and Abloh worked together in the past, which you can read more about here.
See original post below.
Steven Victor took to Twitter to respond to the backlash over the newly unveiled cover art for Pop Smoke's posthumous debut album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon.
"Making a change," Victor wrote about the album artwork. He also added that "Pop would listen to his fans."
H E A R D YOU
MAKING A CHANGE
POP WOULD LISTEN TO HIS FANS ❗️
Moments later, Victor took to IG to expand on his tweets. "as pop’s label & as his friends/family, it is our obligation to bring his vision to life he wanted virgil to lead creative, we fulfilled his wishes however, unfortunately, he’s not here to give his final approval his fans, are," he wrote. "you know why you love pop your voices are loud and clear he loved his fans and listened to his fans pop and us at victor victor h e a r d you l o u d and clear - changes will be made see you July 3rd 2020."
Virgil, who has yet to respond to the backlash, posted the artwork to his IG account, writing, "this album cover was one of like 5 things we talked about. he mentioned his story felt like the metaphor of a rose & thorns growing from concrete of of his hood in Canarsie, Brooklyn." The rest of the since-deleted post's caption read, "In your memory i just finished it yesterday. as evident of the whole idea, the t-shirt insinuates it’s mandatory we put an and to this cycle of violence that plagues us, we need to shoot for the moon & aim for the stars. as heavy as it is we are celebrating your life the whole way thru. rest in piece young one. -signed Louis Vee, Louis Vee."
As previously mentioned, people took to social media to criticize Virgil's Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon cover art shortly after it was revealed. You can check out some reactions below.
Pop smoke vs the Virgil abloh cover for pop smoke pic.twitter.com/CxRP261l5N
I know middle schoolers with photoshop that can make a better album cover than Virgil pic.twitter.com/48iVPcCzJl
Virgil Abloh copying and pasting pop smoke's face on Microsoft Paint for his album cover: pic.twitter.com/jn4q8zTuCf
Virgil put zero effort into that album cover. He literally used the first photo that comes up when you search Pop Smoke’s name on Google. pic.twitter.com/pe9egHcjQj
Pop Smoke in heaven watching Virgil and his team decide on that album cover: pic.twitter.com/UdxFUikg2E
Virgil really couldn't of spent more than 5 minutes on that
virgil abloh be like pic.twitter.com/4sY38nLWLY
Imma keep it two virgils ... Virgil Abloh needs to be arrested for this pic.twitter.com/Kzy5qUxoMD
Pop Smoke in heaven looking at the rubbish art cover Virgil Abloh made for his album. pic.twitter.com/WazsUEhSEJ
im sorry this mf virgil did u like that king pic.twitter.com/1LiRuEnpC5
I’m not for cancelling people man, but Virgil needs to be stopped. We’ve had enough. He was better off doing this. pic.twitter.com/s52HEx5S0X
A change.org petition was even started to get the cover art switched. "Virgil deadass was wild lazy with Pop Smokes Album cover and he needs to fix it," the petition, which has received nearly 9,000 signatures, read.
Well, it looks like it worked.
Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon is set to be released on July 3 and will feature appearances from Quavo, DaBaby, Lil Baby, Swae Lee, and others. Check out the tracklist for the album below.
Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon tracklist:
"Bad Bitch From Toyko (Intro)"
"Aim For The Moon" featuring Quavo
"For The Night" featuring Lil Baby & DaBaby
"44 Bulldog"
"Gangstas"
"Yea Yea"
"Creature" featuring Swae Lee
"Snitchin" featuring Quavo & Future
"Make It Rain" featuring Rowdy Rebel
"The Woo" featuring 50 Cent & Roddy Ricch
"West Coast Shit" featuring Tyga & Quavo
"Enjoy Yourself" featuring Karol G
"Hotel Lobby"
"What You Know Bout Love"
"Something Special"
"Diana" featuring King Combs
"Got It On Me"
"Tunnel Vision (Outro)"
"Dior (Bonus)"
