In January 2015, Run the Jewels and Marvel teamed up for badass variant comic book covers for Howard the Duck and Deadpool. Soon it blossomed into a whole thing, leading, that year alone, to more than 50 variant covers inspired by classic and new-classic rap albums. The collector-friendly initiative was so popular they started it up again last fall, with mixtures like Doctor Strange x Desiigner and Mosaic x Earl Sweatshirt.
"When Nas comes out and says this is a dream come true," Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Axel Alonso tells Fuse in the interview above, "that's like God parting the clouds and saying, 'You got it.'"
And while the "ongoing cross-cultural dialogue" between Marvel and rap will continue (Method Man's doing Ghost Rider; vocally hip-hop–influenced MacArthur Genius/National Book Award–winner Ta-Nehisi Coates has writing a new Black Panther series for nine months), other genres will get their shine soon.