Hitler Wears Hermes 4

Westside Gunn named his long-running mixtape series as a play on The Devil Wears Prada, swapping the devil for the most notorious dictator of the twentieth century and Prada for Hermès. He described the style he was after as "some of the grimiest but flyest shit I could come up with." Hitler Wears Hermes 4, the fourth installment, arrived on Halloween 2016 through his Buffalo label Griselda Records, with every beat produced by Daringer and guest verses from Conway, Benny, Smoke DZA, Stalley and Tiona D.

The cover takes the title literally. A black-and-white photograph of Hitler's head sits on a cut-paper body, and the collage defaces it piece by piece: pasted-in eyes, one ringed in gold, a red tear running down the cheek, glossy red lips set beneath the moustache, and a soft bow at the collar. An orange Hermès tag, in the fashion house's signature colour, is stuck across the chest like a price label. Respect magazine called it an "unbalanced, disproportioned digital collage" with a transparent mid-section, and judged it possibly the most visually experimental Griselda cover up to that point. Gunn handled the creative direction himself, while the designer who assembled the collage is not credited in any release listing.

The image turns a dictator into a mocked, overdressed mannequin, which suits a series built on pairing street-level crime rhymes with luxury fashion. Gunn, who launched his own clothing brand Fashion Rebels in 2012, grew more ambitious with his artwork after this release: for Hitler Wears Hermes 6 in 2018 he commissioned an oil painting from the artist Isaac Pelayo for a reported $10,000. In 2017 the UK label Daupe! pressed Hitler Wears Hermes 4 on limited vinyl, including a black edition of 250 copies.