Rappers as Food

It all started with a hot dogg.

Rappers As Food began as a fun side project of mine in August 2019 on Instagram out of pure boredom with “Snoop Hot Dogg” as the founding father. As a Fashion Marketing student, most of my work clearly takes inspiration from style, and I often forget about my other passions. Rappers As Food, however, combines two of my other interests, creating comical and self-explanatory illustrations. 

My process starts with the puns. I start with a rapper, and in my head, I list as many foods as I can that sound remotely similar. However, when you’ve drawn over fifty rappers, each with a unique pun, this part starts to get a little tricky. And thus, rhymezone.com and listchallenges.com have become my best friends. After the pun, comes the illustration part with my iPad and Apple Pencil. Using Adobe’s “Draw” program, I sketch out the rapper on top of their food, creating an outline I can easily start to fill in. The colors are my favorite part, as generally, other “rap inspired” illustrations appear dark and a little too threatening for my liking. 

Too often, the male-dominated music industry often forgets about the women that make up its history and a considerable chunk of the culture, reflecting in “rap inspired” illustrations as well. Unlike most of these illustrations, I define my artistic style with fun, bright colors, adding a feminine twist to the ever-so often misogynistic rap culture. My work reflects my views as a female artist to represent not only the meeting of rappers and food but also a change in perspective of women in rap.

The series is now available for purchase on Redbubble and rappersasfood.com! Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram through @rappersasfood.