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Killer Mike Pens Intro For Marvel’s ‘The Hip-Hop Covers’ Book

blame it on Shake January 6, 2016
marvel-comic

Last year, Marvel Comics took the rap world by storm with their Hip-Hop variants project.

Planting comic book characters within some of Hip-Hop’s most famed album covers, the series included Ironman as 50 Cent, Wolverine as Ice Cube, The Avengers as The Roots, and plenty more. If you frequent the DopeHouse, you’ll know that we’ve been covering the series since jump street and have provided animated .gifs of each release. Physical copies of every issue were released weekly at various comic books shops, but Marvel’s plans are far from done.

Today, the comic book company released a free, 32-page comic comprised of 14 of the 50 variants—and an intro from Killer Mike!

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(Click to enlarge.)

In case the image isn’t clear enough, you can read the intro—and see which covers were chosen—below.

I have two dads, both of whom played a significant role in raising me: my biological father—a conservative, pro-gun cop—and my mom’s husband—my “dad,” a liberal man of the arts with an amazing collection of records and comics. He was the one that introduced me to comics. I still remember when he gave me first copy of Uncanny X-Men. Seeing Storm for the first time—a beautiful, powerful, dark-skinned woman that looked like my mother with a Mohawk—I was instantly drawn to her.

Comics became that thing for my dad and I that was ours. Going to Atlanta’s West End Mall with him became the highlight of my week. We’d get donuts at the Krispy Kreme, chill at the comic book store next door for hours, then catch a movie at the dollar theater. So when I first got news of Marvel Comics’ Run The Jewels variant covers, my dad was the first person I thought of and the second person I told (wives, bruh). To go from sharing comics with your dad to seeing something you’re a part of actually on a comic, to seeing those covers lay the groundwork for something as big as Marvel’s Hip-Hop cover initiative is unreal. Two things I love combined? It doesn’t get any cooler.

Without question, Marvel’s Hip-Hop variants are cool because they show how far-reaching Hip-Hop’s influences has grown, but they’re even cooler when you how perfect the pairings for the covers are. Choosing Nas’ Illmatic cover for Miles Morales’ debut in the Marvel Universe proper couldn’t have been more on point. The two Wolverine covers that flip DMX’s Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood and Ice Cube’s Death Certificate—awesome! Kamala Khan taking cue from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill—fitting. Outkast’s Aquemini for the Inhumans—next level. I mean, think about that last one: In the Marvel Universe there used to be two basic players: traditional super heroes (Avengers, Spider-Man) and mutants (X-Men, Wolverine); in Rap, the conversation was originally dominated by East Coast and West Coast, then Outkast came along and cemented the South as a legitimate third force to be reckoned with. Just like the Inhumans are doing this year.

Another impressive thing about these covers is the range of artists/albums chosen. Lil B’s Blue Flame cover?! Says it all. The Sugar Hill Gang, Tupac, A$AP, Kendrick, ScHoolboy, De La, Wu Tang, Wiz, Public Enemy—hell, they even figured out how to use Vanilla Ice’s cover in a way that made perfect sense! The age of Internet lists has shows us how difficult it is to please everyone, but Marvel manages to represent Hip-Hop in every one of its various incarnations since its glorious inception. This was no small feat. This was clearly done with love and the type of responsibility we could only hope more people take cue from when representing such an influential art form in my life. Not to mention they look cool as $#!#!

RELATED: Read our interview with Marvel’s Editor in Chief, Axel Alonso.

• Invincible Iron Man #1 by Brian Stelfreeze
• Doctor Strange #1 by Juan Doe
• Ms. Marvel #1 by Jenny Frison
• Extraordinary X-Men #1 by Sanford Greene
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1 by Jeffrey Veregge
• All-New, All-Different Avengers #1 by Jim Cheung
• Amazing Spider-Man #1 by Mike Del Mundo
• Contest of Champions #1 by Denys Cowan & Bill Sienkiewicz
• Vision #1 by Vanesa Del Ray
• All-New X-Men #1 by Ed Piskor
• Web Warriors #1 by Damion Scott
• All-New Inhumans #1 by Marco D’Alfonso
• All-New Wolverine #1 by Keron Grant
• Captain America: Sam Wilson #1 by Mahmud Asrar

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