Aloe Blacc - I Need a Dollar

Aloe Blacc's "I Need a Dollar" has been hitting the top of music charts recently. It was widely successful across Europe reaching top ten in many countries including the UK.

The music and lyrics are by Leon Michels, Nathaniel Hawkins, Nick Movshon and Jeff Dynamite.

Its the title track for the HBO show How to Make It in America, and was also featured as the iTunes Single of the Week.

The cover art of this song gives a very vibrant aura. Aloe Blacc is standing in a plush white suit with a big red bow tie. We can see trees and sunlight in the backdrop. Aloe's facial expression gives a calm and resolute look, he stands tall & gives a feel of a man of style and taste.The use of the colors white and red gives more of a festive feel, the green in the backdrop gives an outdoor persona to the whole cover artwork making aloe look like a man on a mission .

On a personal note, I would have preferred a low tone artwork to complement the title of the track. This cover gives an opposite impression to what the song is about, wearing a red bow tie and white suit gives more of 'I have plenty of dollars and there are more coming' feel than otherwise.

All in all, a different approach from his previous covers, the artist has succeeded in grabbing the audience's attention through the use of contrasting colors, but keeping in mind the title of the track, it has failed to live up to the expectations.

Pitbull Featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer - Give Me Everything

Pitbull's latest single from his album Planet Pit has been making buzz in the charts around the world. An electro dance number featuring Ne-Yo and Nayer, called Give Me Everything. The single is produced by Dutch DJ/Producer Afrojack.

The single cover is simple. It has a head shot of Pitbull in formal shirt, tie and shades. Pitbull maintains his image with formal clothing and shades, and dominance of blue color (in continuation of his album cover). The cover, including the text, is all in black and blue duotone.

The text is where it really lost it. The word PITBULL appears above the head shot, and the featured artists names appear below in smaller text size. The title of the track, spaced and centrally-aligned, is written below the Pitbull's image. The TRON-inspired text was probably designed to give it a "cool" feel, but fails to make an impression. 

The image of Pitbull deserves credit for delivering that flirty look that complements the song theme. The blue color tone and presence of a faint lens glare focused on Pitbull, adds to his appearance nicely. Mr. Pitbull's looks and smirk suggest he has hit the right button with the right girl.

The overall design of this cover is fine, but the simple cover does not make any effort to appeal to the audience, which is a bummer considering this is second-best chart appearance of Pitbull as lead artist (I Know You Want Me - Calle Ocho was the best when it peaked at 2nd place on Billboard Hot 100 in 2009). It will pass under your radar without making any bleep. All in all, an average cover art that should have done more to do justice to the international club hit.