All your Favourite Rappers Re-Imagined as Cartoons!

Man is responsible for marvelous things; toilets that vacuum up poop in a millisecond, bacon flavored soap, air travel – but animation, the art of painstakingly drawing a thousand variations of the same picture, is the only true magic.

Every celebrity wants their fame validated by appearing in an episode of The Simpsons and every child wants to spend every waking-moment at Disneyland. Yet while it’s impossible to ensure the permanent relocation of all children aged 5-11, it is possible to create a cartoon of any famous person.

Zhi-Yun Zhang, an artist, is one such benevolent dream-maker. He’s created a bunch of cartoon-inspired drawings of famous rappers, pop-stars, and singers. They’re all rad, we like rad things, so we called him up to talk about them.

How did the idea come about? What sparked the original interest?
When I was surfing on the internet, I saw a lot of different kind of fan art and abstractions of celebrities and cartoons. That inspired me and I thought, I've never done a series like this by myself. So I just decided to do it.

On Behance.net, you state that lots of collaborations happen in the music industry and you wanted to bring two things together. Why cartoons and music instead of, say, a pizza made to look like Drake?
I take cartoons and musicians because they are both aspects which accompany me in my life. At first, I noticed that Milhouse of the Simpsons had a similarity with Drakes Childhood Pictures from his Instagram. That was the first one I did.

What's your favourite design?
I have no favorite. I like them all!

Are there any others you've made that you're not happy with?
No, I just have another Kanye one with a different outfit. But there are no other celebrity-cartoon mix-ups.

Favourite hip-hop artist and why?
Kanye West. Since The College Dropout was released I was fascinated by the beats and energy he brings with his music. And his sense of fashion is also exciting.

Favourite cartoon and why?
Dragonball. Because of Son-Goku and co. I began to draw the characters and it paved my way to being a graphic designer.

Is the Simpsons terrible now?
I do not watch regularly the Simpsons now. So I cant assess it.

Have you made any other hip-hop inspired art?
Yes, some time ago I made this. In 2011 there was a dance battle tournement in my hometown and I made the logo, poster and flyer for it.

Those look dope! Thanks man.

Follow Ryan on Twitter: @RyanBassil

See more of Zhi-Yun Zhang's work here

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