THE COVER
With a project that means so much to me, there are so many different pieces I've been so excited to share. The cover, I knew was something special. Growing up in Philly, the TLA meant everything to us. This was the venue that any artist who was coming up performed at first before they hit the larger stages in the city. I saw artists like Post Malone, Playboi Carti, Chief Keef and Lil Uzi perform here early on in their careers. This was also the venue that marked a huge milestone for any hometown act as well. Performing at the venue was one thing but headlining and having your name up on that marquee was something else.
In the summer of 2021, I first had the idea of attempting to shoot the cover using that same marquee. I had been playing with a few different ideas for the cover of the book but as soon as this idea came to mind I knew I had to make it happen. I wasn’t sure if the TLA was going to approve me to shoot so I was thinking of every other way I could make it happen. Through my years of photography, I felt like venues and large establishments were not always the biggest supporters of what I was trying to do. The amount of times I wasn’t allowed in the TLA with a camera made me doubt the chance they would support me now. I was planning on attempting some guerrilla style marketing and sneaking around in the middle of the night to set up this photo until my dad simply asked me one day, “Did you even ask?”. I realized I hadn’t. I was so stuck in this mindset that I used to constantly find myself in where I felt like I had to do it all myself and that asking for help may blow the whole operation.
That next day I drafted an email and sent it to a great friend Taalib, who is a pillar in the Philadelphia music scene, to see if the TLA would be down. In my utter disbelief he promptly responded with a simple question, “when would you like to do it”. I was shocked. For so many years I had felt at odds with Live Nation and venues in Philadelphia because when I was starting out I have to admit I was not the most respectful photographer around. I was so tunnel visioned on getting the photos, rules and guidelines didn’t mean much to me. I was constantly sneaking into venues and constantly found doing things I was not supposed to do be doing, creating a rift between these venues and I. As I grew older I understood where I had made my mistakes and realized all these people were trying to do was their job. To now have this venue decide to support me and support the artist I had grown to be truly blew my mind and I am forever grateful. To all of those security guards or production managers I do deeply apologize. Some loved me and some hated me. I was a maniac, but I was only a maniac because I loved what I did and unfortunately all I saw was the photos infront of me.
In the beginning thats how it feels and in all honesty I love that. I love that energy and I feel blessed that I had found something that made me ready to risk so much. That was a crucial era to me getting to where I am today I am just very glad I grew out of that and was able to circle back and make those apologies.
Back to the photo. Finally, we found a day that we could make it work and TLA was down to put the title up on the marquee. At the time, I was working full-time for as artist as he putting the final touches on an album. I’ll never forget, I was supposed to meet him in Miami and I had to FaceTime him and see if it was ok to meet him 1 or 2 days later in order to take the cover image. He immediately said yes because he knew how important that image was to me and again made me realize how blessed of a situation I was in to have support from every angle.
My girlfriend and I drove down that next day with two friends from NYC to Philly and photographed the marquee in different stages of the afternoon and evening. I remember FaceTiming Theodore Grams, the first artist that really took me under his arm in Philly, showing him what I was up to. All of this circles back to the musicians and artists that inspired me to pick up a camera in the first place. Until I was surrounded by music I didn’t understand the focus and attention to detail it took in order to truly create a piece of art. Throughout this whole process I finally felt like I was working on my first album and this was my album cover. I wanted to make sure those who pushed me to get here understood how grateful I am and will always be for them. None of this would have been possible without artists like Grams and Jimme Wallstreet trusting me in the first place. Thank you to every single person who showed me what was possible and encouraged me to make an impact of my own.
