Down With The King

Officially licensed reissue of the 1993 Pete Rock produced Golden Era classic featuring guest rhymes from Pete Rock & CL Smooth. I love record sleeves that have a bit of a story behind them, I used to spend hours checking out every detail on every vinyl I brought, and you could always tell which covers were created with love, they would have that extra level of detail and story behind them. Down with the King is such a dope release, it still sounds as fresh as it did when it was first came out in the early 90's. I wanted to create a cover design that looked as fresh as the record sounds, but also had that nod back to it's past and the original sleeve design. The original sleeve shows Run, JMJ & DMC sat on a fenced wall in front of a graveyard and church. After a fair amount of research, a few educated guesses and a lot of routing through street view maps I found the same church on Jamaica Ave, Hollis, Queens NY. I was then able to create a broader view of the scene and show JMJ floating above the graveyard and Run and DMC still in the same position on the fence. It felt like a nice story to be able to tell, it reflects the history and roots of the group and almost gives the song a new perspective now that the legend Jam Master Jay is no longer with us." - Ricky Also Amped to play this!" - Bobbito Garcia