Featured above: Knocked Down (title of the album) rap album cover.

The album cover you see before you was inspired by a true story in my life. The story contains themes of loss from struggles ranging from job, mental + emotional health issues.

With much of the story revolving around pain and suffering, the red color embodies the character featured in the cover being surrounded by these dark feelings, with some additional traces of anger. These feelings further embody the character to act, starting the change for the better. There are two places within the cover where the character can be seen, one at the bottom and one on top. The character on the bottom symbolizes the struggle it will take to climb back to success (also the same reason for the Rising Up text being positioned in an upward slant). Meanwhile, the character on top is supposed to resemble someone who is in a state of defeat and hopelessness. Within the title of the cover, the word “Knocked” is in the color blue, which represents the character’s drive for power and sense of purpose in life. The word “Down” is in purple to highlight the hustle it will take for the character to achieve success and deliver justice to those who put the character down from the start.

Ultimately, this cover was created to shed light on one’s drive to hustle for success, despite the adverse positions we can find ourselves in due to internal and external forces that try to bring people down.

Left to right: Inspiration for the Knocked Down cover came from American rapper Nipsey Hussle’s Victory Lap and The Weeknd’s (Canadian singer) Hurry Up Tomorrow album covers.