“As Told To” - The Story Behind Big Kuntry King’s Album Cover

ARTIST INTERVIEWS    By Devin Chanda on September 30, 2008 at 2:32 pm

The album cover might be a lost art in these days of consumers who don’t make the trip to their local record shops to purchase physical copies. For many of us, album covers & liner notes have always been part of the experience of the album, an essential part. Hip-Hop has had it’s fair share of great album covers to go along with some not-so-great ones as well.

Needless to say, when we first saw Big Kuntry King’s album cover for his Grand Hustle debut, My Turn To Eat, there were mixed emotions. On one hand, we “got it”…but at the same time we had to think “who the fuck greenlighted this shit?”

So before we wrote it off, we decided to reach out to Kuntry to get some of the backstory & an explanation on the cover. And what follows are his words as told to the Crew’s D. Chanda regarding the thousand dollar burger that any fast food employee would be envious of.

One thing’s for sure — We can’t make this type of shit up on our own.

TSS: Let’s talk about the album cover.

Kuntry: (Laughs) Aww shit. You liked it?

TSS: I thought it was hilarious. Was that the intention?

K: You see, me, I’m a practical joker. I talk shit and have fun but I’m for real. So I said, ‘Well, do I wanna be a rapper showing my gangsta lean with my chain on? Nah, I don’t wanna do that same old shit.’ So what I did was put the money in the burger to represent my turn to eat so you can see the sense of humor about it but then say, ‘That’s what I want.’ When you see that burger, everybody wants a burger like that. I want that. That’s a lot of money in that burger. Almost damn six or seven thousand dollars in that burger. So it represents the hustle, period. You know, if we had light bulbs or question marks come on the top of your head, when we hustle, that’s what we should see: that burger with that money. Now let’s get it. It’s our turn to eat.

TSS: So the intention was to be both out-of-box and comical?

K: Comical and for’real at the same time. But that’s me, all at once. It’s kind of hard to know how I’m feelin’, but I’m always the same way twice so you’ll never know. I’ll smile at you and I’ll probably have a death in the family. I’ll smile at you and I probably just got finished beating somebody up. You would never know because I’m that type of person. I believe that you gotta be the same way twice. If you were cool and nice to the person the first time, you gotta be cool and nice. If you were mean and an asshole, then I’m gonna always be an asshole to that person. Always.

TSS: So was the concept for the cover entirely yours?

K: Me and Jason Geter. Jason Geter was like, ‘I remember when Biggie Smalls came out and had promotions for Big Macs and stuff.’ I said, ‘What if we had some money in it?’ So they drew up a burger with money in it. I was like, ‘Nah, we need a real burger. We need to put some real money in it.’

TSS: So originally it was just a drawing?

K: Yeah, it was black and white. So we got the money and then got the people to prop it up. And we took so many pictures of it. And it came out right. I can’t wait to get to the next album to see what we can do with that (Laughs).

TSS: Why not a hot dog?

K: They only represent New York. Down south, everybody got a burger. Back when Grease was Grease and they stop at the burger spots, they roll on skates and serve you burgers. Everybody eats burgers. We don’t even have hot dog stands down south. We can’t do tacos because that only represents one type of people, but they eat burgers, too, knowhatimsayin’. I thought it would’ve been neat to make shirts with all kinds of food with money in it.

TSS: So are you guys gonna do that?

K: Yeah, I think so.

On The Shadow Of T.I.…

You see, I know what I’m doing, but I don’t get the chance to express what I’m doing like other artists do because they put me in this box and say, “He’s not like T.I.!” You damn right! I’m three hundred pounds—he’s 125. He’s 5’9—I’m 6’3. He’s light-skinned—I’m dark-skinned. He got nappy-ass hair—I got that good shit. We”re not the same, but we’re both for real. Now, people are coming around sayin’, “I didn’t like him—I wasn’t really into Kuntry—but I like him now.” They also dissed Dro because he had all them funny colors. Then they heard his album, and they not only liked it, they were more surprised as it went.

TSS: Tip would be cool with you saying he he’s the nappy one?

BKK: I’m the big homey—he don’t care about that stuff. He calls me fat. I’m the big brother. We grew up together since we were 16-17.

On Being “Lyrical”…

When you really tell what’s going on, you gotta rap it straightforward—no metaphors for that. You know, I do the metaphor game, too, if I want you to be like, “Ooooh, you heard what he said?” But to make it meaningful and felt, you gotta damn near give it to ‘em like Marvin Gaye. You feel me? So a lot of people, they’re just looking at it on the surface and they’re not gonna get into it. But if you dig deep and really listen to it, you gonna be like, “He said a mouthful. He said a lot.”

On The Difference Between New York & Southern Rap…

On my album, “Pots and Pans” tell our mindframe: “What you listen to up there, is not what we grew up listenin’ to down here.” If you don’t understand why we make music like this, it’s because we didn’t have the joyful times of listening to the great artists you had. We had more artists where it was mainly about the beat and the bass because we actually drive cars down here—we actually show off whips down here. We didn’t have the music to keep you going so hard while you ridin’ the subways, walking five city blocks because the lifestyles are very different. Down South is like, “Aww man, I gotta pop this UGK in and listen to Pimp C give it to ‘em before I hit the club and hit the club listening to the coochie poppin’ and body rockin’ music.” The lifestyle is so different for us because we sell records down here. As long as I can sell records in my corner of the United States, we don’t care ‘bout nothing else. But now, music is getting broader, so guess what? Now I do care about the rest of the world.

Kuntry’s debut My Turn To Eat hits stores today, 9.30.08. For more info, visit www.myspace.com/bigkuntryking.

Posted in ARTIST INTERVIEWS, AS TOLD TO, GENERAL, SMOKE BREAK — Tags: "FIFTEEN MINUTES WITH...", Album Covers, AS TOLD TO, big kuntry king, Grand Hustle, My Turn To Eat, T.I.