Toni Delono can make hip-hop artists walk on water. Actually he uses Adobe Photoshop to perform this miracle. But, if you didn’t know the specifics of graphic design and photo manipulation, one look a picture he’s editing for So Fresh Productions would convince you that the proprietor of So Fresh really is strolling across the Cumberland without getting a drop of water on his Air Jordan’s.
From his office near Murfreesboro’s square, the man, who also pulls double-duty as a recording artist under the nickname “Wolf,” seems rather mild-mannered for someone who recently achieved a lifelong dream. Sept. 19 marked the release of the Grammy Award-winning rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s sixth solo album, Thug Stories?an album Delono designed the artwork for.
“It came full circle that I did their artwork because they were the reason I started doing graphics to begin with,” says the married father of two. “In 1997, I was looking at the album cover for The Art of War. The artwork impressed me so much that I started playing around with it.”
That “playing” led to experimenting with Photoshop 2.0 via Delono’s then brother-in-law.
“He worked at a candy manufacturing company called Zeebs,” recalls Delono. “They used to have bubble gum CD’s that were packaged like real CD’s. Instead of U2 they had kiddie stuff like U Chew. I actually designed a lot of stuff when I was 13, 14 years old. I never got paid for it; I never got any free candy or anything.”
Despite his disdain for child labor laws, Delono’s former brother-in-law provided the type of on-the-job training that would pay dividends later on, combined with some of Toni’s naturally inherited talent.
“My mom is a painter and my pops is a musician and a painter,” Toni explains.
Delono’s chance meeting with Nashville rapper 187-Blitz would provide plenty of necessary clientele, and the two formed Broken Tusk Graphics.
The duo amicably separated, giving Delono more space to pursue other creative interests, one of which was music. While writing a rhyme, he ran across the word ebb?the reflux of the tide toward the sea.
“It was a perfect interpretation for my music,” explains Delono. “I want to take you away from where you’re at and purify your mind and then send you back into the world.”
One of the places Toni’s music sent him was to a BTNH concert at Gaylord Entertainment Center.
“Someone I knew was working the door,” says Toni. “I posed as somebody doing an interview, but the only thing in my portfolio was my artwork. We did the interview and after I showed them my portfolio.”
The talks were productive and through a series of subsequent meetings and conversations Delono found out he and the group not only shared common interests, but also that he and Layzie Bone grew up in the same neighborhood in Texas.
He was offered the opportunity to design the cover for a compilation album, but the project never happened.
“Looking back, that was actually a good thing because my artwork was not developed.” says Delono.
The artist lost touch with the group, but Delono continued honing his skills. He would go on to higher profile projects, such as Cash Money exile turned Koch Records signee B.G.’s Heart Of The Streets series. When BTNH joined the Koch roster they remembered Delono.
“Layzie Bone helped pull some strings for this latest album cover,” says Delono. “Now I’m in the middle of a bidding war trying to get the Interscope cover, since they just signed [a new record deal]. I’m actually in that debate as we speak because Koch Records offered me a job in New York.”
So, Delono may not be a saint. But if you consider he’s had no formal art training and hasn’t attended a day of school since age 13, the fact that he is designing album covers for hip-hop’s elite, in an area more renowned for country music, really does seem like a Toni’s work is available online at ebbtight.com and myspace.com/ebbtight.
Want a free copy of Bone Thugs n Harmony’s Thug Stories? In support of Toni, Koch Records is giving away a free copy to the first person who sends the titles of the first five BTNH albums to ciphermaster@hotmail.com.
