Mr Cartoon is a prominent figure of the American hip-hop scene. He has tattooed Eminem, 50 Cent and Beyonce, designed logos and graphics work for T-mobile, Grand Theft Auto, Nike, Vans, Diesel, T-Mobile and Toyota. Having started as a graffiti artist, he designed album covers as his side job. This put him in touch with a fair number of musicians, many of them were just on their way to stardom. They became his first tattoo clients: Cypress Hill, Cee-lo, OutKast, Redman, Method Man. And Eminem himself.
During a conversation in the new episode of “No Jumper” podcast Mr Cartoon recalled his first meeting with Eminem:
I’ve seen him perform before I even knew who he was. It was at one of Bigga B’s events downtown. We showed up, and Em walked to the stage and the whole crowd was like boooooo. People were not hyped. And then five minutes of him rapping the place was quiet as fuck. I ended up meeting him through Cypress… Once I tattooed him, I no longer needed a portfolio.
Mimicking Em’s signature pose with folded hands, Cartoon explains:
He was on so many covers of magazines like that.
That’s right, Eminem demonstrated his guns on magazine covers and all of them were covered in Mr Cartoon’s work. Eminem was asked about them so many times that he even mentioned in “No Apologies” how he was tired of these conversations: “I’m sick of talking about all these tattoos Cartoon did”.
One of the most noticeable tattoos Eminem’s got is a portrait of Hailie with a car and the words “Bonnie and Clyde” that refer to one of his most controversial songs. Apparently, this one was done in a hurry as Eminem was rushing out to a date:
I was like, you know I’m doing your daughter’s portrait, holmes. No pressure, shit!
It turned out just fine, we all have seen it.
Watch this part of podcast below:
