This Is How Young Thug’s 'No, My Name Is JEFFERY' Cover Artwork Came Together

Not long before Young Thug released his No, My Name Is JEFFERY project on Thursday night, the Atlanta rapper released the album artwork which features the rapper posing in a full-blown haute couture dress. In order to uncover the idea’s conception, The FADER linked up the photographer who shot the cover, Garfield Larmond, to talk about how the shoot and artwork came together. The dress is actually part of Italian designer Alessandro Trincone’s “Annodami” collection, which is inspired by traditional Japanese clothing. Check out a few highlights of the interview below and read the full conversation here.

On meeting Young Thug

I was doing a photoshoot in Atlanta for a client a few years ago that featured Jerrika Karlae. The shoot came out really good. She liked it so much that she introduced me to Young Thug. So, I’ve known them for some time now. Once she introduced me to him, I show a video for “Turn Up,” which was a commercial for Jerrika’s swimwear as well as his music video. After I shot that it was just like let’s go. Let’s keep going.

On the conception of the JEFFERY photoshoot

Before I got to do this photoshoot, [Young Thug] actually had another photoshoot for the cover in Atlanta when I was out of town. They got the photos back and one day we were in the studio, and he mentioned he didn’t like them. We were in the studio, actually, with Wyclef [Jean], and I was shooting some stuff for them, when he decided to make a post on Instagram explaining that the tape was delayed because of the cover artwork and all that. Some time went by. We ended up in New York to meet up with [VILES founder] Julie Anne Quay because Young Thug is about to be a mentor for VFILES’ fashion panel. One of the pieces that they showed during that meeting was a piece by this designer, Alessandro Trincone. So, we were just looking through the photos at the end of the shoot, and [Thug] said, “What’s that? I need it.” We didn’t expect VFILES to say they could send the piece to us, but they were like, ‘We can get the whole outfit to you in Atlanta.’ We left New York, went to L.A., got back to Atlanta, and then got the word that the piece was in. I didn’t even know we were going to have the photoshoot, but, the day of, they called me and said, ‘Hey, we need to set this shoot up now to get these photos done.’