Jesse Nunez

Reimagining athletes as rappers is a lot of fun. Trust me. I’ve spent way too much time on it.

But my amateurish attempts at Photoshop are blown to chum by Jesse Nunez, a New Jersey-based artist who masterfully worked some of the best in the NBA into the cover art of a number of vintage albums.

Nunez hit 10 essential covers, and I can only imagine how much work went into these manicured vignettes. You can view the entire collection at his Behance.net gallery, but the following are some of my favorites.

Let’s start with Carmelo Anthony, who, sadly, will probably die before getting a ring:

Jesse Nunez

Lob City are the Fugees, and I only pray Chris Paul doesn’t follow the trajectory of Lauryn Hill:

Jesse Nunez

The new, reliably surly Kevin Durant of 2015 is about a quarter as mean as a young Dr. Dre, but you can’t pass up on this pun:

Jesse Nunez

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is probably the greatest Wu-Tang Clan side project of all time. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving aren’t too bad either, I guess:

Jesse Nunez

Last, but not least, Stephen Curry’s baby face is the perfect stand-in for a young Nas on Illmatic:

Jesse Nunez

Well done, Nunez. I envy your Photoshop skills and only ask that you find some time to put J.R. Smith’s face over ODB’s in Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version.

Dan is on Twitter protecting his neck.