Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Hip-Hop Photographer Jonathan Mannion Talks About Classic Shoot With Jay-Z



Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt
"I spoke to Damon Dash first [about shooting the album artwork], and he goes, 'All right, cool. Nice pictures. What are you going to charge me?' And I was like, 'I'll do it for 300 less than your lowest bid.' I was talking hundreds. ... I was like, 'Just let me do what I want to do, man. My vision.' I went with Jay on the creative stuff and had a whole list of things. Then he changed his title. I don't know if it's common knowledge, but it was originally going to be called Heir to the Throne. That was a title that was tossed around. Reasonable Doubt came around, and I came back with a whole other set of ideas. They styled themselves. I told them I didn't want the whole Versace, 'Scarface,' Miami Mafia drug-running kinda thing. I wanted the New York, the Brooklyn Mafia. Little Italy surveillance, the real business."

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