The Story Behind the Cover: A BEAUTIFUL ME$$

Some projects are more than just a collection of songs. Some projects become an entire production, from the instruments, to the word choice, song meanings, skits, transitions, cover art, videos and rollouts. there is an intention behind it that creates a whole world, a whole feeling, and a whole piece of your life that you want people to understand before they even press play.

I wanted to challenge myself to create a production, something that will stand forever and represent hard work passion and intention. That desire began the creation of “A BEAUTIFUL ME$$”

This project is about taking the mess, the adversity, the life situations, the things that don’t always look perfect, and finding the beauty in all of it. It’s about making something out of the struggle instead of letting the struggle define the ending.

So when it came time to create the cover, I knew IT HAD TO BE ORgANIC AND INTENTIONAL. I didn’t want just a clean picture with my name on it. I wanted something that had personality. I wanted something that felt a little weird, creative, honest, gritty, colorful, and true to the SONICS.

That’s how the process with Marie Rih started.

Behind the Cover: A BEAUTIFUL ME$$

Reaching Out (Aug 14, 2025)

"I knew she had a style this project needed to bring this cover art to life."

Marie Rih is an artist based out of Philly. She paints, tattoos, has a YouTube channel and a podcast (with her talented partner Jay), and is just a really talented artistic creative. Her art has a certain character to it. I knew she had a style this project needed to bring this cover art to life. It feels expressive, personal, and unique, and that was the type of energy I wanted for this project. When I say how talented she was I knew I wanted that stamp and signature on my cover art as well.

I told her that I had a project that I would love for her to work on and that I was interested in working with her on the idea and vision and the rest was history.

behind the Cover: A BEAUTIFUL ME$$

the Vision {explained}

The first version of the idea was a painted headshot of me wearing a durag, with my head turned in a 3/4 position. I wanted it to have a purple sky type of background, similar to kanye's graduation and drake's nothing was the same but still different and more in-line with my artistry.

I also wanted the face to have her signature style on it. Marie has signature finish on her portraits that make the features feel full of character and meaning, the type of creativity and deep meaning you could write an entire article on separately and I wanted that for the cover. I didn’t want it to look like a regular portrait. I wanted it to feel like a character version of me that still represented the music and the world I wanted to invite people into and of course I wanted it to be able to peak curiosity on its own.

Cover Art Inspirations

Behind the Cover: A BEAUTIFUL ME$$

Meaning Behind A BEAUTIFUL ME$$

Before Marie could really make the art connect, she wanted her to understand the project more clearly. After the first idea was out there, Marie asked for pictures of me and more information about the album and songs. She wanted to know what the project was about and what songs stood out.

the “ME$$” in A BEAUTIFUL ME$$ means taking whatever adversity, life circumstance, or situation you face and still finding your style, pride, and confidence through it. It’s about being able to roll with the punches and make the me$$ something original.

The project itself is about my perspective, my values, my scars, my musical character, and my mindset as it keeps growing and changing. I wanted the cover to show that before anybody heard a song.

It’s about seeing the process, the perseverance, and the beauty inside all of it.

That’s why the art had to be intentional. The face had to have symbolism. The background had to have meaning. The colors had to translate. The handwriting had to feel personal. Everything had to connect back to the idea that even the messy parts can become something beautiful or stand out to provide an organic balance to the whole perspective or make you appreciate the surrounding moments of beauty.

Behind the Cover: A BEAUTIFUL ME$$

Figuring Out the Colors

At first, I wanted a purple and yellow gradient background. I showed Marie references that had a purple sky, but I didn’t want clouds or a lot of extra stuff in the background. I wanted the purple to be strong at the top and then fade into some sort of gradient either yellow/ orange/ light purple toward the bottom.

The purple felt connected to the project’s personality. (And its also my favorite color if you couldn't tell by my IG story post) It had that emotional, creative, attractive pull. The lighter gradient gave it a little warmth and brightness. Together, it felt like the mess turning into something with light in it.

Later on, we also looked at other background colors. Marie sent versions with purple, green, red, and blue. I really liked the green too because it had a nice matte texture and felt different. The red was fire too and felt more aggressive, like it could lean more into the rap feel. But after sitting with it and asking people close to me, I still felt like purple was the one.

Purple just felt the most like A BEAUTIFUL ME$$.

Color pallete options

Behind the Cover: A BEAUTIFUL ME$$

The First Sketch (Aug 25, 2025)

It was starting to materialize. It was still an early version, but the direction was there. The face, the durag, the exaggerated smile, the colorful background, and the overall character were starting to come together.

I loved the direction, but part of being intentional for me was paying attention to detail and knowing when to compromise part of my ideas in favor of artist creativity and expression as well as knowing when to guide the work back to the essence of the project. That became a big part of the process. I would tell her what I loved, then explain what I wanted to push further.

I told her what I liked about the features, what colors I wanted to emphasize or change, skin tones, details like eyelashes and eye shape, style of the lips, the incorporation of the envelope, and we had continued dialogue about these features and how to bring them to life with the right energy until we got it right.

As Marie kept sending updates, we kept getting closer. I wanted the title, A BEAUTIFUL ME$$, to be on the durag in white letters. I wanted the eyes to feel more tired, droopy, and cartoon-like, almost like I had been working hard or staying up late. The tired eyes embodied the story of the process. They gave the character more grit. I wanted the cover to be fun and expressive, but I also wanted it to have that edge where you could tell there was something deeper behind it.

I also started thinking that maybe the background needed more detail. The gradient looked good, but it felt like the space around the portrait needed to say more. It needed to represent the ME$$.