Lil B Goes Gaye (Happy!) with New Album Art

No, not that gay!

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Inciting outrage, death threats, and -- at least for us -- wry chuckles, the controversial Berkeley rapper Lil B has named his upcoming album I'm Gay. Despite his past threat to rape Kanye West and jokes that he was a homosexual, B says the title is about happiness and the meaning of words.

"I really seen that the hip-hop community is being very closed-minded and very hateful, very violent," B told MTV News. "People use evil words, money, separation, stuff like that. I just wanted to make this to show words don't mean anything."

In keeping with that aim, the cover art for "I'm Gay" is a reference to the Ernie Barnes painting that graced the cover of Marvin Gaye's 1976 album I Want You. Revealing the image on MTV, B says it depicts the path from slavery to mental freedom. Check it out after the jump.

Here's Lil B's new art:

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And here's the I Want You cover, with the 1970 Barnes painting Sugar Shack, which depicts a scene the artist witnessed in his childhood:

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"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 told MTV about his new art, which was done by friend Uncle Grumpy. So, so gay. Er, we mean, Gaye.

[MTV News]

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