After I spotted preview images of TI’s Paper Trail album cover a couple months ago on the web, I immediately put it down in my book as one of the best hip-hop album covers of the year. In fact, with a little over 2 months left in ‘08, and still without any contenders in sight, it might be the best cover of the year (oh, you think otherwise? drop your picks in the comments.).

However, when I first blogged about the cover here, the one thing that drove me crazy is that I couldn’t find a single drop of info on the artist behind it. Nothing. Nada. Not even a small clue on the websites of Atlantic Records and Grand Hustle Entertainment. But now, thanks to tips from a few awesome Gureala readers, I now have a name and website to put with the work: Ian Wright.

What’s even cooler, is that while looking through Ian’s portfolio (which includes more dope mosaic style projects) another question was answered: the cover isn’t a vector image as I initially suspected. Nope. The shreds of money, notebook paper, envelopes, newspaper and receipts that make up TI’s portrait are 100% real:

Amazing!

(images via Ian Wright)