I started listening to Public Enemy when I was about 13-years-old. To say that I couldn’t appreciate the message or the politics behind their music would be a huge understatement. I just liked their sound. It wouldn’t be until my 20′s that I really listened and started to put together a cohesive understanding of their music. But to actually relate? Not in the least - this white boy grew up in the suburbs of Calgary. However to this day I still love to fire up Fear of a Black Planet or Apocalypse ’91 when I am working or on the go.

So I thought I’d put together my ideal box set for the group. I needed to incorporate their iconic ‘sniper cross-hairs target’ logo - no way around it. And as you can see in the title image above, it looks like I created a bullet-riddled box. Well that is the impression I wanted to give from afar.

Up close it’s a different story:

I wanted the box to be made in a cassette theme - the medium that many of Public Enemy’s albums saw release on. All of the bullet holes are actually cassette spindles, complete with a spool of tape.

The design incorporates the clear plastic tape case that was popular in the early 90′s. One side of the box prominently lists all the albums and songs, much like the labels on a cassette tape. Yes there was a time when people had to read the cassettes to know which song was where. And they had to squint when reading the track listing. Good times.

The box would contain all of their albums in CD form. If it were up to me, I’d include a Blu-Ray compilation of their music videos and if possible, a concert performance as well. As much content as possible to lure in fans who likely already own most if not all of the PE library (like myself).

You could apply this ‘cassette box’ to many other old-school rap or hip hop artists, but it just works so well with Public Enemy’s logo.

I’ve posted many Blu-Ray concepts for films, so it was nice to make something for music. I hope to make more concepts for music, as well as designs for video games and books. Stay tuned.