August 2, 2007

Kanye West Collaborating with Takashi Murakami

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mojo-photo-murakami.JPG First we hear Kanye is off to Sweden to perform with Peter Bjorn & John; now we get news that the hip-hop superstar is working with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami on the visual aspects of his upcoming album Graduation, out September 11th. Murakami has already designed two covers for the first two singles from Graduation, “Stronger” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothin'” (see below). West met the “Japanese Warhol” on a recent trip to Japan, where he visited Murakami’s Kaikai Kiki studios; photos from the visit are here on the Kaikai Kiki website (including a possibly NSFW glimpse of Hiropon, the girly anime sculpture). Apparently Murakami has also created an animated video to one of the tracks from the album. Artnet points out the rapper and the artist have something in common: a fascination with Louis Vuitton.

Cover artwork after the jump.

“Can’t Tell Me Nothin'”
mojo-cover-kanyecant.JPG

“Stronger”
mojo-cover-kanyestronger.JPG

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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