JEFFERY

On the cover of JEFFERY, Young Thug stands against a plain white background in a flowing, ruffled lavender dress and a wide brimmed hat that hides his face. Released under his birth name, the mixtape turned one of trap's most unpredictable voices into a fashion statement, and the image started a debate about masculinity in rap that ran for months.

The photograph was taken by Garfield Larmond, who told The FADER that Thug had already done one cover shoot in Atlanta and disliked the results. In New York, VFILES founder Julie Anne Quay showed him a piece from the Italian designer Alessandro Trincone's Annodami collection, inspired by Japanese kimonos, and Thug said, "I want that for the cover." Dressing him took about an hour and a half, and fitting the hat another thirty minutes. When Thug saw the first frames he said, "This is it. This is what we needed from the beginning."

JEFFERY was released on 26 August 2016, with each song named after one of Thug's idols, from Wyclef Jean to Kanye West. Trincone's dress became one of the most famous garments in hip-hop, and the cover remains a landmark in how rappers present themselves.