Drake’s ‘If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late’ Cover Was Inspired by a German Artist

A Tumblr account called B4-XVI--that's "before sixteen" for you non-Roman numeral kids out there--has uncovered the unlikely origins of those praying hands on the cover of Drake's surprise album, If You're Reading This It's Too Late. Though some inspiration may have been drawn from the prayer hands emoji (you know, the one Drake recently got tattooed), you can actually follow the 6 God back through history. The blog, which states its mission to be "Highlighting an invisible conversation between hip hop and art before the 16th century," traced the clasped hands back to a painting by Albrecht Dürer, an artist and mathematician form Nuremberg. Studie zu den Händen eines Apostels, the work from which the hands were lifted, is believed to have been produced in the year 1508, smudging the Tumblr's parameters ever so slightly. The piece's title translates to Study of the Hands of an Apostle. If you have the time, peruse the rest of the blog, where Young Thug, Quavo, Kanye West and more are paired with their pre-1500 analogues.

If You're Reading This It's Too Late was released out of the blue last month to rousing commercial success--it sold over half a million copies with no warning, no single and no press run, and saw over a dozen album cuts creep onto the Billboard charts. Reports are that it was originally supposed to be a DJ Drama tape.

Filed Under: Drake, if you're reading this it's too late

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