In February 2018, Seedhe Maut contacted me to do their album art. Who is Seedhe Maut? Well here you go;

Seedhe Maut is a Hindi-English rapper duo from New Delhi, India represented by Azadi Records. I - personally - have been a fan of their work since I first heard their music in 2014. Seedhe Maut's sound is a combination of lyrical consciousness on hard hitting beats; most of which are produced by the musical genius hailing from New Delhi - Sez on The Beat.

When I met Encore and Calm from Seedhe Maut in Delhi to discuss their vision, I was very impressed with the ideas that they had. The importance of a visual often tends to get lost when one is focused on a certain art form or the other especially when indie artists are taken in consideration; which is also - I think - the reason why a lot of indie artists' album covers aren't all that impressive.

But Seedhe Maut are pacing away from this indie tag, the sound is professional, their shows carry an energy that is insane and being represented by the very ambitious and driven team at Azadi Records, the only way to go is up.

So clearly, as a fan of their work and a staunch supporter of the Indian rap scene, I was floored by this opportunity.

statement, declaration, description, assertion. 

Encore and Calm were inspired by the Dandi March statue by Deviprasad Roychowdhury; the from, anatomy and movement really resonated with them and they wanted their own "trapped out" version of the same. "Kranti" was a name that Seedhe Maut were playing around with in the initial stages of this project. The word "Kranti" means revolution and Seedhe Maut wanted this album to be their first step towards this revolution. With them, they wanted their friends in this revolution - those are the people you see behind the duo in the artwork. 

Initially, the walk was imagined in the streets of their residence; a walk beginning where their careers began. The background was imagined as a dark night with an orange tint from the street lights of New Delhi and the silhouettes of the houses from their area along with some common vehicles seen in such a residence. 

Soon we moved on from that idea to a more fantastical image - a sky that looks almost post apocalyptic and these guys walking through a dry, barren deserted land.

The expressions of each of the characters was based on very low resolution images I received via WhatsApp. Some of the key expressions are that of the duo, Kode with a cigarette and his feet bare. And Yungsta lending his hand to Frappe Ash at the end (who also are a rap duo named Full Power).

The clothing was an important part of this image; the drapery wasn't supposed to be all Indian. Seedhe Maut wanted it to a mixture between hip-hop fashion from the current generation, biblical clothing with an Indian twist. Encore sent me a list of shoes he wanted himself and others in the image to be wearing along with the bottle of Hennessy in Calm's hands and a simple but big gold chain around both their necks. I decided to put in a small tattoo on both of their arms - the Seedhe Maut logo.

For the text on the album cover, I decided to go with Bodoni MT Condensed as the primary and Sitka's Banner variant for the additional text. Bodoni to me is a typeface that resonates a boldness while keeping a certain class about it. I stretched the 'BAYAAN' text in different ways till I found something I was happy with. Something that looked just prominent enough while also having a sense of menace to it.

The colour pallet and the stretching for the text was experimental and the following are a few of the same:

Once the font was decided the visual development for the track list began. Taking in consideration the illustration heavy cover, we decided to go with a textured red background with white text on it. The "BAYAAN" text still retained it's texture in a different style while Sitka reflected the energy of the album combined with easy readability.

Stream 'Bayaan' by Seedhe Maut here:

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Jayman Artworks x Seedhe Maut x Azadi Records