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When painter and sculptor Devon DeJardin needs an extra dose of inspiration in his downtown Los Angeles art studio, he likes to put on some rap. Only this isn’t just any regular rap music: “We call it the rough and rowdy phase where it’s like heavy, dirty, grimy, hood rap,” DeJardin says. “It just gets us moving and feeling a certain way.”
Even before he was an acclaimed multidisciplinary artist — with work displayed in the permanent collections of Space K Museum in Seoul and the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. among others — music was always a big part of DeJardin’s creative process. Growing up in Oregon before moving to California in his early 20s, the now-LA native ran through different phases of music as a kid, with rock, hip-hop and punk inspiring early entrepreneurial and artistic endeavors alike. But it was through rap where he found his fervor; the energetic groove he needed to lay down a cacophony of colors on canvas, or build one of his signature “Guardians” from cold, barren plaster into a towering masterpiece.
It was also through rap that DeJardin landed one of his biggest moments of his career to date, after the artist was commissioned by Gunna to design the cover art for the rapper’s new album. Releasing August 8, the appropriately-titled The Last Wun seemingly heralds an end to Gunna’s time with YSL Records, re-teaming him with frequent collaborator and producer Turbo for a final follow-up to last May’s One of Wun.
The cover art features an original painting by DeJardin, depicting Gunna as a sculptural and imposing apocalyptic-like figure, at once bruised and defiant, and posed against a stark background.
“It was about trying to capture Gunna in his essence of where he is in his life,” DeJardin explains, “and then adding stylistic elements to it, to represent anger and vengefulness but also represent peace, stability, perseverance, grinding. It’s like he’s working through his pain and grit, and he has a literal chip on the shoulder as if he’s got something to prove right now.”
Gunna says DeJardin perfectly “captured the zone” he was in while making the album. “The visuals match the whole vibe of the project: pressure, pain, progress, and real reflection,” the rapper tells Rolling Stone. “It had to reflect this moment in time, where I’m at, what I’ve been through, and where I’m headed.”
In short: “It’s raw, it’s elevated, it’s me.”
DeJardin and Gunna first met through a mutual friend in February, when they all happened to be in Dubai (DeJardin was completing a month-long artist residency while Gunna was there for a concert). The rapper invited DeJardin to a dinner party he was hosting, but though they made brief small talk, nothing really materialized from the meal. “He kind of skirted out early and I didn’t really hear anything from it,” DeJardin recalls. “So I was like, ‘That’s okay, that was still a cool experience.”
A few weeks later, DeJardin was back in LA when got a call to come down to Gunna’s studio. He immediately hopped in his car and pulled up to a nondescript North Hollywood building in the middle of the night. “Gunna was sitting in his chair getting his hair braided and started playing his music for me,” DeJardin recounts. “And I just turned to him and said, ‘Bro, you gotta let me do an album cover or something. I feel like I could crush it for you.”
Gunna’s reply: “What’s the story?”
From there, it was weeks of studio visits and texting and chatting, as Gunna and his team talked up the urgency and gravity of his new music, while DeJardin shared the inspiration behind his art. Some nights would just be spent listening to the new tracks with Turbo behind the boards, while other nights a group assembled around DeJardin to hear him speak about his longtime theological studies and his ongoing search for spiritual transformation. Gunna’s team would chime in occasionally with context about the album, emphasizing the rapper’s newfound focus three years removed from his well-publicized legal troubles. “This album is so important to us because of what Gunna’s been through,” DeJardin recalls them saying.
And then, one day, it was finally time to create.
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DeJardin was first commissioned to design the single artwork for “Won’t Stop,” the lead release from the album, which hit radio and streaming services in June. The painter and illustrator says he already had the album cover “kind of figured out,” and he wanted the single art to have a similar look and feel. Drawing on the lyrical theme of the song, DeJardin created a sculpture that mimicked a “distressed” and worn-out clock. “The clock hands have fallen off because we’re kind of saying that time will stop,” DeJardin explains, “but the piece also resembles a portrait of Gunna being chiseled away,” he says.
The album artwork, which DeJardin completed a few weeks later, once again reveals a portrait of the rapper, only this time, it’s “him in full form.”
DeJardin says the entire process took months to complete, with the artist painstakingly studying and conceptualizing everything from the markings of Gunna’s tattoos, to his posture, to his signature necklaces, which are “ripped out” in the final image to show the literal trials and tribulations the rapper has gone through.
“The Guardians in my paintings are supposed to be these totems of protection that were here before us, to guide us on our journeys,” DeJardin explains, “and this painting shows Gunna as the last one of these protected figures, guiding us and giving us a view through his journey of self development.”
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The Last Wun [Explicit]
For his part, Gunna says the artwork for The Last Wun is more than just a cover: “It’s my moment I’m cementing,” the rapper asserts. “Every dent, every edge, it’s a record of what I’ve been through,” he says, adding that, “It’s not about scars — it’s about the bounce back. About standing tall when everybody expected you to fall. That’s the energy running through the whole album.”
For the self-taught DeJardin, who once sold T-shirts at Fred Segal and moonlighted as a bartender at Chateau Marmont to pay the bills, getting a chance to work with one of his favorite musicians — and getting their blessing on his artwork — is a dream come true.
“You know, for the past year and a half, so much of my time has been committed to self-development: physically, mentally, spiritually; I kind of feel like I am stepping into this new season of life,” the artist says. “And when I sat with Gun, I could tell he was in a spot where he was really fighting to prove to people that this is the next chapter of his life. So it felt special that my first cover was with somebody who was on that same wavelength.”
Gunna says he was equally inspired by DeJardin. “I came across Devon’s work through some mutual connections in the art world, and it instantly stood out,” he says. “We had real conversations, not just about aesthetics, but about meaning and presence. He brought that vision to life in a way that felt honest. It wasn’t just about making a dope cover, it was about creating something that captured where I’m at right now, like a true piece of art that reflects this chapter.”
While Gunna’s new album is out now, DeJardin’s next chapter is yet to be written, but if the artist has learned anything from this collaboration, it’s that your most inspired work often comes from unexpected places — and that you should always, most definitely, meet your heroes.
“I feel like every best-case scenario that’s happened in my art career, or just even life in general, is being open to responding to things that seem very unknown,” DeJardin muses. “I remember listening to ‘Drip Too Hard’ and then seeing Gunna walk the runway for Casablanca at Paris Fashion Week [in 2019]. I was like, ‘Damn, he’s so cool.’ I’ve been in rooms with him on different occasions, but this is kind of a full circle moment where we’re now working together.”
Plus, he adds with a soft chuckle: “I’ve been a fan for years, but I’ve probably listened to more Gunna music in the last few months that I have in my entire life.”
