Textual Analysis of CD Cover


The artist on this cover, 50 cent, is being represented as another typical “gangster” rapper following the stereotypes made about artists of this genre. The cover is very basic but still delivers a dramatic effect and representation of the artist through the photography, text, colour and mis en scene including the costume. The most noticeable thing on this cover is again the image. The image consists of the artist standing tall and giving the audience a very serious look, immediately the audience can tell that there is not a very welcoming presence to the cover which is typical of artists in this genre. Next is the costume, the costume is very minimal as he the artist’s upper body is only in the photography, however the artist seems to be wearing nothing more than a large diamond crucifix and a pair of gun holsters around his shoulders, the gun holsters are very significant because if we look close enough the audience can see that they are a “Gucci” designer set of gun holsters, this can be seen to many that this artist is promoting and glamorising violence and guns or it could be seen as an extreme representation of reality and life for this artist, none the less it is safe to safe that a heavy sense of hypocrisy is present within this album cover as the artist wears a crucifix, which is a representation of the Christian religion and accessorises it with a pair of gun holsters. Another interesting part of this photo is the way a bullet hole and cracked glass has been edited in front of the photo with the crucifix shining through the bullet hole, again here is a strong sense of hypocrisy and a very negative representation of the artists image and lifestyle which could be seen as some one who endorses and glamorises gun crime. The text is fairly simple and uses a fancy calligraphy style font on the album name and a small sqaurish font for the artists name.