21 Savage Celebrates Album Release By Taking Over Atlanta Museum

Rapper 21 savage has been on a press tour since the release of his new album 'What Happened to the Streets?'. To celebrate the album release, the rapper and British-Nigerian artist Olaolu Slawn took over Atlanta’s High Museum of Art for a special exhibition.

The show featured 15 original artworks created by Slawn and Savage, anchored by the album’s cover art. Inspired by Kerry James Marshall’s 1980 work, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self” was show. 

The painting figures a similarly shadowy, hatted figure defined by striking eyes and a gap-toothed smile, while emblazoned with Slawn’s cartoonish spray treatment and Savage’s iconic knife tattoo. Also on display were eight portraits, each showing a collaborator on the album: Drake, Latto, G Herbo, Lil Baby, Jawan Harris, GloRilla, Metro Boomin and Young Nudy. There were also four additional paintings figured in the project’s 4-CD cover art series.

The museum show comes fresh off the duo’s Art Basel rollout, which featured a 20-foot inflatable sculpture. The knife-pierced piece, inspired by the album artwork, made its way around Miami’s biggest fairs and institutions, before making its final stop in Atlanta.