Gabriel Amzallag (aka MC Blue Matter) is a hip-hop illustrator who balances the grind and the goof

Gabriel Amzallag loves hip-hop music, so much so that he has his own alter ego: MC Blue Matter. For nearly a decade, he’s been shaping visual identities through album art, animation and illustrations for streetwear brands to labels like Sony Music. Whereas his art work – which has spanned over 200 single and album covers – has found a place in exhibitions and music videos, his illustrations are from the streets and for the streets.

Whether it’s through satire or admiration, Gabriel’s pop culture artworks burst with love: be it a criticism of Batman’s choice to buy batarangs over therapy or how Marty Supreme is the most spiritually hip-hop movie about ping pong. Gabriel grew up with an artistic mother who exposed him to David Hockey and Sonia Delaunay and in his own time, he fell in love with American comic books such as X-Men and Fantastic Four. “At fourteen, I went to Basquiat’s first exhibition in many years in Paris and it completely shook me. His work was about everything I loved: comic books, jazz, hip-hop and modern art,” says Gabriel. “That experience inspired me to become an artist and create my own style rooted in the things I am passionate about, without caring if it looked good in a ‘traditional’ way.”

Inspired by diverse visual cultures such as seventies funk album covers, archival photographs from old Moroccan Jews, posters from eighties Hong Kong action movies, Bauhaus design, and Harajuku style magazines (not to mention artists like MF Doom who literally merge comic books and rap) Gabriel channels his gratitude and love back into his illustrations by uplifting “underdogs, beautiful losers and anyone who does not quite fit the mould”. Orbiting community-based interests such as the New York Yankees and lucha libre (Mexican wrestling), it isn’t hard to feel the fan service behind it.

In a way, Gabriel creates a type of visual mixtape of all of his influences, but, “hip‑hop is the thread that ties it all together,” says Gabriel. “I’m drawn to its hustle mentality, the idea of working hard, finding your lane, and making something out of nothing.” He ends: “As a kid I loved drawing Biz Markie because he embodied that spirit. He was a real hustler with a sense of humour who never took himself too seriously. That balance of grind and goof is everywhere in my work.”