Last night, Drake took to Twitter not only to announce that he would be performing as not-‘N SYNC at this year’s VMAs, nor just to let you know that his next album, Nothing Was The Same, would be arriving Sept. 24, but to bring to those dark and lonely midnight hours a little ray of sunshine in the form of the album’s cover. Its dual images, from illustrator Kadir Nelson, are ostensibly meant to evoke the “You’ve come a long way, baby with industry connections” themes of its first single, “Started From The Bottom,” what with its cartoon of an Afro-pick-sporting toddler Drake, staring into the eyes of his far more accomplished and immaculately groomed adult self.
Of course, what it mostly evoked was a lot of Twitter laughter, with jokes about that baby being Blue Ivy, all the other “baby rapper” album covers Drake is obviously trying to emulate, and how great this would look airbrushed on your van and jean jacket.
And naturally, with its wide-open sky and subtle sheen of cheese, it’s also begging to be Photoshopped. So let’s all do that. Send us your submissions and we’ll add them as they come in.
Here are three I did to get you started.
ElDan, master of subtlety:
Idwiz, sticking with the 1983 Week theme:
Ferlin Husky, thinking ahead:
Senor Spielbergo, using Photoshop's non-union Mexican equivalent:
ROTM, surrounded by assholes:
MahatmaGumby, pretending as though Drake actually has sex:
Eric Abrams, getting existential/Travolta:
Al Capwne, proposing the hilarious notion that Drake used to be on a kids' show:
Juice Wayne, who wrote his own caption: "Started without walking, now we here."
Albino Horse Eye, with the next natural step in hair evolution:
10cities10years, with the inevitable:
Dikachu, going topical:
Jen Cieslak, classing up the joint by teasing out the "Son Of Man" theme:
Enocaster, maybe getting to the heart of what this cover is really about:
From "howard." Nothing Was The Same, indeed:
Johnny Longtorso has identified another possible inspiration:
Atomic-Blackadder, getting political:
The Hero of Akron-Canton, possibly even more self-referential than Drake:
LiberalCollegeFreshman, bringing up old shit…:
Spacemonkey Mafia, actually trying and making us all look like jerks:
From BBald (because "drake" is a word for "duck," you see):
Ben_Murphy, getting even more inspirational:
ganews, back on the "duck" thing:
NathanieltheGreat, showing how Drake has only become more multifaceted:
Trickster, on this lovely bella note:
Colin Foster, getting spacey on Drake's Brew:
Jen Tam, I dunno, maybe suggesting Drake is kinda fake?
Snidely Q. Dooshbaghe, finally recognizing there's also another thing named "Drake":
Chris Ward, with a little spin through music-face history:
Like Drake, ManateeRex wasn't satisfied until he had two silly photos (and Lil Wayne's approval):
The Kind Cromang, suggesting pop-rap will eat itself: