Rapzilla readers voted JGivens’s Fly Exam as the Best Album Artwork Design in Christian hip hop last year.
Fly Exam’s cover was photographed by Christian Padron, who also directed the music video for the lead single, “Ignorantro”, and photographed all of the album promo and inserts.
Not only did Padron play a significant role in the release of JGivens’s Billboard-charting album, but both creatives also played a significant role in each other’s career path. They met as freshman at the University of Southern California, and Padron was one of several friends who convinced JGivens to start rapping.
JGivens later returned the favor.
“I’m rapping for about a year. I think #occupyMondays around that time was out,” JGivens told Rapzilla at Legacy Conference 2016. “Christian was working for a consulting firm, and he said, ‘Hey, I got this camera. Should I quit my job and move to New York and do photography?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, fool. You told me last year to rap and not go into engineering.’”
Padron did.
“And he ended up becoming my photographer,” JGivens said, “so we’re really tight. And that’s why we work together because we’re not only working together to make art … but we’re working together to support each other in our vocations because we both left our jobs to do some art, so all we have is each other.”
Watch Part 1 and 2 of Rapzilla’s interview with JGivens at Legacy.
