Lil B Explains 'Gay' Artwork, "The Hip-Hop Community Is Being Very Close-Minded"

After raising eye brows with his I'm Gay album title earlier this year, West Coast rapper Lil B has now come out to confirm and explain the project's new cover art.

Rather than use a standard image, Lil B said his I'm Gay cover art is embedded with a deep message.

"Pretty much the album cover, you see it's the three sides of the slavery, mental slavery and mental freedom at the ending where everybody is happy," B explained in an interview. "The reason why I did the I'm Gay album, I really seen that the hip-hop community is being very close-minded and very hateful, very violent...People use evil words, money, separation, stuff like that. I just wanted to make this to show words don't mean anything." (MTV)

The project's cover art landed across the Internet Thursday (June 16).

Several months and several death threats after announcing that his upcoming album would be called I'm Gay, weirdo rapper Lil B has backed off a bit, or clarified a bit, or something with the cover art. So yes, there's that "I'm Happy" parenthetical right below the title, which kind of sounds like an elementary-school joke but, to be fair, is the same rationale Lil B's been giving ever since the announcement. Again, he wants the world to know "words don't mean anything"-which anyone who's ever used the words "I'm gay" to say that, in fact, they are actually gay might disagree with, but which certainly isn't inconsistent with B's stream-of-consciousness style. (Pop Dust)

The cover is also inspired by late music great Marvin Gaye.

Today, B revealed the cover exclusively to RapFix Live and while many fans anticipated a controversial piece of work, the album's cover could be possibly be considered tame by many stretches of the imagination. The I'm Gay album artwork was inspired by Marvin Gaye's I Want You album cover drawn by late African American painter Ernie Barnes; Barnes also drew a similar piece for the opening credits of 70s sitcom "Good Times." Lil B's version is decidedly similar, much like Camp Lo's debut album Uptown Saturday Night and its cover, but highlighting a message of the contrast between slavery and freedom. (Rapfix)

Last April, Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs publicly taunted Lil B's album title during a Brooklyn, New York concert.

"No f*ck sh*t. This ain't no Lil B Based God or no f*cking f*ggot sh*t like that up here," Freddie told fans at a Southpaw Brooklyn show April 27th. "What the f*ck you thought this was? N*gga this is real rap. N*gga. Based God get the f*ck outta here n*gga." (YouTube)