The New Music

Way back in 1993, a young illustrator named Kagan McLeod sent a photo he’d drawn of the Wu-Tang Clan to MuchMusic in hopes of getting it shown on air. He waited and waited, but no one ever showed it. Fast forward 16 years and Kagan is now an accomplished artist with his own comic book (Infinite Kung Fu) and illustrates for clients like Nike, Nintendo, Entertainment Weekly, National Post and Wired.

It’s long deserved, but finally Kagan’s work was shown on MuchMusic when Devon interviewed him for MuchNewsWeekly.

Here’s an excerpt of Kagan talking about his amazing History of Rap Poster. It’s a must-have for any fan of hip-hop.

The History of Rap poster, where did that idea come in?
Kagan: It started as a doodle on the phone where I just started drawing a couple faces and lining them up. I thought it’d be cool to make it a bit of a history lesson but also something cool to look at.

How long did it take you?
About six months. There’s 469 individual portraits on the poster, and I would do eight or nine every night. Another big part of the project was coming up with all the people I thought should go on it and putting it in order. I did that by album release date of their first album.

What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever received?
Connecting with some of the rappers who are in the History of Rap poster. I got it in the hands of Brand Nubian, Busta Rhymes, Ice-T, and of course MuchMusic’s Nardwuar gave a copy to Jay-Z. I don’t even know how Nardwuar had heard of the poster or who he got it from, but it was cool to find out that he was going to give it to Jay-Z and it was great to see.

How would you describe your style?
I kinda developed this more drawing-based style that’s more brush and ink. I’m inspired by Chinese brush painting and comics.

Check out more of Kagan’s incredible work here.