How J. Cole’s ‘4 Your Eyez Only’ Album Cover was Created

Keep your dreams alive.

This past Thursday, rap artist and producer J. Cole unexpectedly announced the release of his fourth studio album, 4 Your Eyez Only, to the delight of many hip hop purists (December 9th). The album’s announcement was accompanied by a taste of the body of work in the form a song called “False Prophets,” in addition to a 40-minute documentary that details the creation of the forthcoming album and the official LP’s cover. The latter was created by a photographer named Anthony Supreme from Monroe, North Carolina – just a couple of hours from Cole’s birthplace of Fayetteville, North Carolina – and his personal story behind the content creation of Cole’s artwork is inspiring and motivating to say the least. The photographer, Anthony Supreme, took the time to share his story via Instagram.

Read the transcript below.

I’m honored to say this is the official album cover I captured for @realcoleworld’s #4youreyezOnly dropping Dec 9. Photography by me. Here’s a long back story for you!

I’m super excited about this cover and album artwork that I captured for my favorite artist of all time, J.Cole, and I’m proud to say this is my first official album cover! This represents all that I am and where I’m from in North Carolina. I remember being in a record store in Sydney with my girlfriend, saying to her, ‘I want to do an album cover someday; I want to walk into a store and see something I created in the record stores around the world.’ I remember her saying, ‘Who would you want to do a cover for?’ I honestly didn’t know at the time. Then a week later, I got a text from Scott who works for Dreamville and is a good friend of mine. He asked me, ‘Do you want to do the photography for J.Cole’s new album?’ I was like, ‘Hell yeah!’ Crazy, right?

I remember the day I pitched this photo to J.Cole. I was nervous as f**k! It was in September, and we were on a two-week tour of the creation for this album. I thought this was the perfect photo for his cover. It took me two days to build up enough confidence to show him 6-7 specific photos that I felt stood out to me, but this one – of this young boy in Atlanta – stood out the most. I was nervous to sit down with Cole and his manager to discuss my findings in the back of this huge tour bus.
I described to Cole that there was just something about this young boy’s eyes. Because that day, Cole, Scott and I just randomly stumbled upon this neighborhood in Atlanta while shooting footage for something later to come. This Atlanta neighborhood was just going crazy at the moment! People were running out of their houses to take a photo of Cole and ask him questions but, there was something to me about this boy and how he kept looking at Cole as he walked around his neighborhood. I could see in his eyes how much this experience was slowly changing his life forever!
The young boy’s face just stood out to me to capture him. I saw in his eyes that he knew nothing about J.Cole but was somewhat amazed at how everyone around him was reacting. The boy even asked Cole, several times, who he was, but he couldn’t understand what was going on in his world. One night, Cole and I spent hours looking for photos for his album, but nothing seemed to stand out. Then a few days past, and I finally found this photo that I felt most represented the cover to me, so I pitched it to him. Which at the time, Cole felt something about this photo as well but wanted to think about it.

I few months past, and I got news earlier this week from Scott that he made this his album cover, which is kinda amazing to me, because everything we created during that time period was pure, in the moment and it was pure connection. All the photos and content to come represents just that – human connection, the universe and coincidence. LIFE!
I must say that I can’t wait for the world to see the rest of my photography that I captured throughout this process that will be seen in his album booklet. It represents one of the greatest monuments of my life! I must say that I was nervous every day and became very motivated and inspired by this wonderful human, J.Cole!
I couldn’t have ask for anything better! I’m from Monroe, North Carolina – a small city outside of Charlotte, North Carolina – and to have my first official album cover with J. Cole, a huge representation of North Carolina, is really a dream come true!
Thanks you, @realcoleworld, @kingofqueenz25 and @Dreamvillerecords, for letting me create this for you! ??