Perhaps 2015 will end up being the Year Of The Emoji, as last year produced a variety of emoji-style art and apps such as the Seinfeld emoji app and the Cam'ron emojis, to name a couple. There are countless staples of our culture that are simply not represented in the land of emojis, everything from a middle finger to tacos, and graphic designer Frank Lepkowski has decided to take it upon himself to throw some rap culture into emoji form.
The designer discussed his project with Complex, saying ,"I began by blending preexisting Emoji with rap imagery and phrases. By doing so I've studied what defines the Emoji visual style and have since started creating original RapMoji that draw purely from rap imagery."
Lepkowski continued, saying, "Rappers love telling stories wtih Emoji. They co-opt these things and make a language all their own. Think of every time Chief Keef fires off a tweet, or when you scroll through the comments on a rapper's Instagram. Emoji are already a staple in the rap community. I'm creating Emoji that reflect the rap world."
Lepkowski's creations, dubbed RapMoji are inspired by everything from individual rappers, such as Kanye West, to hand signals representing the West Coast.
When reflecting on the subject, there are so many topics to pull from in the rap world and a good case could be made that an entire theme set of emojis could be created for a handful of prolific artists.
There has also been news that 2015 will see a more diverse selection of skin tones available, as well as a new pool of 37 images that will be voted on for the next Unicode 8.0 update, including religious topics and the most popularly requested emojis, such as popcorn, cheese wedge, hot dog, taco and a bottle with a popping cork.
Check out some of Frank Lepowski's creations below and be sure to keep tabs on his Instagram for more updates and designs.
