CDQ’s creative team had only one job. They did it badly.

Here’s a shout out to CDQ for the effort in putting together an album so soon after his ‘Indomie’ collaboration made him popular. A few songs in, and he has gotten ambitious, and is set to drop an album.

Of course, there are very little reasons why he shouldn’t be aiming for the stars, literally. His label owner, boss and producer is the great Masterkraft – the famous producer of hit records, collaborator of highest repute, and a respected industry leader and nice guy.

With such a strong man in your corner, and the ability to release new music, why not push for something greater than loose work, and herd everything into one big project? And that’s why we have a new CDQ album about to show up, and bless Nigeria with new Hip-hop material.

CDQ Album artwork -Quality

But CDQ isn’t making a lot of people quaking with excitement about the quality of his work. And this is all down to the album art.

Three Golden Words: It is bad.

Not all album covers are created equal. Some album covers are so incredible that they can’t now be explained by the people who originally conceived of them. While others are the worst, most strange and downright ridiculous album covers ever made.

There is something to be said for a beautiful piece of album artwork, and even in 2016, where the only place many people admire such pieces will be on the screen of their smartphone, a great album cover is always appreciated.

Which is why everything about CDQ’s cover sticks out like such a sore thumb, as one of the worst, and most underwhelming pieces of album art we have seen, and will see in 2016. There are records in here by the singer that will be loved, and there are records in here by artists that we won’t love quite so much. But many people will never find out because

The Photo: Overexposed, poorly edited, cropped and looking like a budget shoot, CDQ’s attempt to clean his ‘razz’ and ghetto image on his album art failed spectacularly. Why do we have a mink coat on a Nigerian rapper in 2016? How many Polar Bears gave their life for CDQ to have that rare privilege? Who put together such a shoot to have that image make the final cut?

The Background: If anything beats CDQ’s photo in the ‘wack’ scale, then it has to be the choice of colour on the art. After careful deliberation and years of planning and boardroom meetings, Brown emerged as the best choice for General Records. It beat other high profile candidates including the red, the gloomy black, the tired Purple, and others. We have the Brown, which when applied right, can signify, the color of earth, wood, stone, wholesomeness, reliability, elegance, security, healing, home, grounding, foundations, stability, warmth, and honesty. It is a natural, neutral color that is typically associated with the seasons of fall and winter. The color brown is a warmcolor that stimulates the appetite.

But CDQ and his team, found a way to make Brown diminish the appetite. The colour separation is amateurish and reeks of the cheapest hand in the business. While the fonts, well, the fonts are better left undiscussed.

Let’s flip it….

playCDQ Album “Quality” back cove

(General Records)

There you go. We have a worthy rival. The photo is excusable, but the faded cartoon portrait of CDQ in the background is a huge aesthetic liability. So also are the spellings. Benie Macaulay becomes Bennie Macaulay, and sound engineer Zeeno Foster, has been given a name change, coming off as the biblical and elegant Foster Zion.

Conclusion

CDQ’s creative team had only one job. They did it badly.

http://pulse.ng/buzz/cdq-rappers-quality-album-cover-is-the-worst-you-will-see-this-year-id5388869.html

-Culled from pulse.ng