Image via Complex Original
Cooper Black is one of those fonts you know you know, even if you don’t know you know it. Appearing everywhere from the handwritten logo of Archie Comics to every trucker hat Kelso wore on That ‘70s Show to the opening credits of Louie, it’s a ubiquitous font despite it’s goofy, bloated nature. That being said, like just about everything in the culture these days, it’s seeped into the world of hip-hop to become a mainstay for some of the genre’s most innovative artists. Here’s The Complete History of the Cooper Black Font in Hip-Hop.
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10. Early Years
Years: 1922-1940
Notable uses: Mainly Advertising
Cooper Black had a lot in common with hip-hop from the beginning. Oswald Bruce Cooper released the typeface in 1922, and it would become his legacy (even if he himself was largely forgotten—sort of like DJ Kool Herc). Most critics derided the font at the beginning, but it would find new, acceptable avenues for use, as advertisers needed something easily readable and friendly, yet its popularity dropped by the '40s. It was even called "the black menace," which is terrible in this allegory but seems worth mentioning, considering the racist white culture's opposition to hip-hop and the genre's adoption of the typeface later in Cooper Black's years.
9. Entry into Music
Years: 1966
Notable uses: Pet Sounds
Before Cooper Black entered the hip-hop world, it transitioned into music through pop and rock. While Cooper Black had fallen out of favor to cleaner modernist design by the 1940s, it was picked up again for the cover of one of the most important pop albums of the 20th century, introducing it to the world of music. The first album to come out using the font was The Beach Boys' pop classic Pet Sounds, setting a precedent for Cooper's playful round edges in spaces maybe connoting something beyond what the font itself ascribed. Many albums went on to use the typeface.
8. DIY Days
Years: 1977-1988
Notable uses: Crew Shirts, Fliers, Graffiti
By the late 1970s, Cooper Black became oversaturated. And, after a failed attempt by its owner to patent the typeface, it was everywhere. This included on iron-applique patches for clothing. It would become the go-to for anyone making his or her own shirt. And that's about the time Cooper Black met up with hip-hop. Many breakdance crews used the font to create uniforms for themselves, and graffiti bubble letters came to resemble the bloated look of Cooper Black. Famed street photographer Martha Cooper snapped a frame or two of the font in use, and a modified version appears on her book Subway Art. It is also featured on the cover of a book called Shirt Kings: Pioneers of Hip-Hop Fashion.
7. Biz Markie
Years: 1988
Notable uses: Biz's Hat
Immortalizing the trend was the unstoppable Biz Markie, the first rapper to bring Cooper Black into the mainstream. In the late '80s he was photographed with the classic Cooper Black applique askew on his hat reading "BIZ." It never looked cooler.
6. De La Soul
Years: 1996
Notable uses: Stakes Is High
By 1996, the innovative Long Island rap trio De La Soul was turned onto the font. They used an unweighted, italic version with no baseline for the cover of their critically-favored Stakes Is High album. It also called back to the DIY days, putting the album's title on the shirt of one of the photo's subjects. To many, this is one of the best uses of the font—and one of the greatest album covers—ever put to use.
5. Too Hip Again
Years: 1999-Present
Notable uses: Brothers
By the late '90s, Cooper Black came into vogue with designers who realized it made older folks yearn for a simpler time. So by the time it came to saturate design once again, album designers were picking it up, and the trend continued. Though there weren't many notable titles in hip-hop using the typeface around this time, the apex of this was The Black Keys' album Brothers.
4. Odd Future
Years: 2008-Present
Notable uses: OFWGKTA
In the mid 2000s, LA brat-pack rappers Odd Future appeared on the scene through the Internet. And their choice of font? Cooper Black. It nodded back to the DIY Days and the independent nature of their early game. They were all about expressing themselves however they could.
3. Tyler, The Creator
Years: 2009-2012
Notable uses: Goblin, Bastard
OFWGKTA leader Tyler, The Creator made the strongest use of the font. For two of his three solo albums, versions of the cover have included heavy, bold, and eye-numbingly bright uses of Cooper Black. If you're the creator, you better show them how to create.
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2. Frank Ocean
Years: 2011
Notable uses: Channel Orange
Odd Future affiliate Frank Ocean used a little bit of a glowing style of Cooper Black for his Grammy-nominated, Soul Train-winning album Channel Orange. While slightly divergent from past OFWGKTA uses, in the sense it didn't carry the same weight or stroke, it still nodded to his past ties to the group. It was the same combination of fonts used on his debut mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra.
1. T-Shirt Mash-ups
Years: 2000-Present
Notable uses: Fear of a Cooper Black Planet, Cooper Black Thought
It was only a matter of time before the typeface started appearing in mashed-up T-shirt designs. Considering the options for the plays on words, hip-hop was ripe. Two of the best plays come in the form of a nod to Public Enemy and another to Black Thought of the Roots.