Marcellous Lovelace Paints Cover Art for Jill Scotts new Album "To Whom This May Concern" Out Feb 13, 2026

Marcellous Lovelace (also known as Infinito2017) often describes his work as a "consistent Black expression" that is created as a way to "express my soul to those labeled Black as a way to record their story". The affirmations are central to his style, which uses "Afro Urban" visual narratives and militant protest imagery to educate and inspire.

• Jill Scott's Endorsement: Scott praised Lovelace on social media, referring to him as a "rare gem" and urging fans to check out his artwork as she shared the album's lead single, "Beautiful People". 

Album Context

• Release Date: February 13, 2026.

• Tracklist: The album is a 19-track masterpiece.

• Key Collaborators: Beyond the visual art of Lovelace, the album features musical contributions from DJ Premier, Tierra Whack, J.I.D., Ab-Soul, and Andre Harris.

The affirmations in Marcellous Lovelace's artwork for Jill Scott's album To Whom This May Concern are powerful statements intended to document, celebrate, and empower the Black experience, specifically for Black people, in the face of oppression. 

Key Affirmations and Their Meaning

The artwork, which features a painting of a nude Black woman, includes specific phrases integrated into the design, primarily on her collar necklace.

• "We fight": Repeated multiple times on the necklace, this phrase is a direct acknowledgment of ongoing struggles and resistance against systemic issues and colonial oppression.

• "We can save ourselves": This affirmation emphasizes self-reliance, community strength, and internal power within the Black community, promoting a message of agency and resilience.

• "You cannot touch me": This assertion suggests invincibility or spiritual protection against external harm, hate, or invalidation, serving as a boundary and a declaration of self-worth.

• "One day we will destroy all of those who wish to harm us": This stark and defiant statement speaks to a hope for ultimate justice and the dismantling of harmful forces. 

https://rollingout.com/2026/01/14/marcellus-lovelace-on-jill-scott-picking/

Marcellous Lovelace, known in artistic circles as Infinito2017, creates what he calls Afro Urban art—visual narratives that document the Black experience through militant protest imagery and cultural celebration. The South Side Chicago native recently achieved a career milestone when Grammy-winning artist Jill Scott selected his work as the official cover art for her album To Whom This May Concern. A graduate of the University of Memphis with training from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lovelace has spent decades teaching art in schools, prisons and community programs while building a body of work that refuses to let Black history fade from view.

What first drew you to art as a form of expression?

I go back to being a young child. Uncles, cousins and relatives always motivated me to draw and use my time wisely. I started at 8 years old—drawing, painting, sketching—and it was my older cousin who put the pencil and paper in my hand. We started that day, and I’ve been painting and drawing ever since.

I got scholarships to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Memphis College of Art. I graduated from the University of Memphis. All of these opportunities led to everything I do with art, but I’m mostly self-trained and self-taught. I’ve taught myself every aspect of it through all the ups and downs, being pulled away from it and pulled back into it. Before you came on with this interview, I was literally drawing and painting. It’s a normal part of my life, and it keeps me out of nonsense.

How would you describe your artistic style today, and how has it developed?

I created a name for myself: Afro Urban. Being from places like Chicago and always living in Black areas creates a reason for me to create from Blackness, create from the Black struggle. Growing up seeing murals on Stony Island, Queen of the Sea—that always inspired me to say I have to paint something on a sign one day. My family is from Helena, Arkansas, so seeing that reality and always seeing Black people created why I create.

If I don’t have the Black experience, I don’t have an art experience. Everything associated with Black art—artists like Jacob Lawrence, Horace Pippin, Charles White, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett—all of this motivated and inspired me. I’m reinterpreting my experience through the Blackness, through the struggles, through the South Side of Chicago where I’m from. I do mostly protest art, so I fight to create a version of Black propaganda. All colonial oppression shall be destroyed—that’s one of my art mottos.

Why is it important to share this Black experience and story the way you do?

Because if I don’t do it, then it’s not done. All of us should be driven to make sure we’re not leaving ourselves out of history. Most of the greatest people I know, we learned about them because we looked at them when we were little. We know about Black history through stories we hear about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X.

If Black people don’t study Money, Mississippi, and what happened to Emmett Till and Mamie Till, we don’t have that thought today. I have different campaigns with my art and series named after things like Money Mississippi or Biko70 for Steven Biko. All of these eras that Black people go through, I think we should tell our story and keep our history in people’s faces, because that’s what’s missing. With George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Laquan McDonald—every single protest thing that has occurred, I’ve painted a series from it. We all have a story. If we don’t care about it, nobody will.

What did it mean to have your artwork selected for Jill Scott’s new album?

Everything came full circle because I was chosen only because of how I create, only because of what I’m telling you about how I tell stories. It was her coming to me, not a company or people asking me to do something. It was literally a genuine connection between her and other individuals in Philadelphia who relate to my art.

I’m still at a loss for words. I’m totally touched and inspired and highly respectful for that to even occur. I’m a protest artist. I make Black militant art that’s telling a deeper story and message. For them to pick me is sincere and genuine. I’m old enough now to have a concrete foundation, so I’m who I am. She literally reached out to me on the internet as sincere as you could do something, and she loved the concept in which I create art. It was refreshing, and it brings new life to what I create.

How did Jill Scott’s artistry influence what you provided?

She was literally picking work that I did, so I had to upgrade it and paint around it. I went back and listened to Let’s Take a Long Walk Around the Park. I took her songs and thought about how to get there. We spoke about when I first saw her perform at the Metro with The Roots.

Everything she told me about the album, everything she told me about what to do, tied into how I was going to create things. It was like working with a creative team on a record label back in the day. By her being independent, it started with her and ended with her, and that’s the dopest part. She’s genuine, poetic and creative, and we had these stories about Philly and art. She talked to me about other artists like Bisa Butler, and that makes it dope. She looks at me like that, and that’s what she inspires me to give back to her.

Looking back, what key moments shaped your confidence and direction as an artist?

I would say my father and my grandmother. Them being from Arkansas and those backgrounds they came from, looking at extreme poverty—that shaped me. Then the different artists like John Biggers, Kerry James Marshall, Horace Pippin, Jacob Lawrence. I would say women and positive relationships. All of these experiences shape and mold every single thing. Just driving through Chicago from the South Side up Lakeshore Drive to the West Side—all these things shape how I look at things. A lot of Black art, Black people, Black things. Chicago had so many rich things like the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. All of that creates how we exist as Black artists from that city.

What do you think creates Chicago’s revolutionary style of artist?

I think Black people coming to Chicago was a migrated struggle. Most Black people coming to Chicago were escaping something. It wasn’t some smooth migration. People were escaping, being forced out of the South. The Chicago thing of getting up there and having to go through that made us who we are. We’re very resilient, strong and powerful. People came from slums to eventually living in Chatham or Oak Lawn. My grandmother and them came from the West Side when the Chicago Stadium was there. Having all of that well-rounded history and coming through the struggle of Chicago helps us give back to that era.

How do you see AI influencing visual art and artistic expression?

Double negative. I think it could have been great, but I don’t think it’s going to be great. I call it RJD2 and C-3PO. If every human being needs a droid to function, then they’re not functioning. When I teach children writing assignments, the first thing they go to is AI. If your whole life is based on cheating to get to an idea, then you’re not thinking. It poisons the imagination.

Black people need to use their imaginations. What happened to being thoughtful and intelligent? We need to make sure we’re keeping our minds and imaginative minds in order. Humans are losing their own reference point and their ability to think. We have to balance how we use AI. It could be a very good informative tool, but it could be very dangerous because humans are losing their ability to use imagination.