Banksy, Alec monopoly, Cro, Leikeli47.. These are all names that we know, but who are the faces behind them? A Lot of artists have been starting their careers undercover. This means that they don’t show their faces and wear masks. But why? Is there any reasoning to them hiding their faces?

Before writing this article I tried to think of some reasons to why these artists don’t want to show their faces and after thinking about it for a while I started to agree with the idea more and more. Here is what I came up with: These masks get people to focus on the actual art that is being created and not on the physical appearance of the artists. We tend to focus on a celebrity’s looks and beauty way more than we should and sometimes it can even take our mind off their work, which is what it should be about. Also, this way the artist can keep a private life. If they feel like going out as their known face and being followed by paparazzi, they will go out wearing their mask, but if they want to live the life that an average human does, they simply have to take off the mask and no one will know it’s them. Wearing a mask also makes them a bit of a mystery, which gets people more interested and curious about them. So overall, wearing masks as an artists can be a huge advantage! Although, maybe some of them want to hide their faces, because they are not comfortable with their appearance.

Leikeli47 is a female rapper who wears a ski mask. When being asked about her mask she said: “The message that I am trying to get across to people is to not be so serious. You know, as entertainers, none of this is serious. Im sitting here with a mask on (laughs). You know, it’s all about fun. You know, do you. Get your messages and your words out how you want to… share your heart how you want to share it. Don’t let nobody tell you how to do it. This mask represents freedom. With this mask, all you see is music, all you hear is music. I would much rather have you visualize and see the colors that I am speaking vs. everything else, for example, what I look like, what’s my size, my race. I am a proud black girl, but at the end of the day we are here to love each other and that’s what this mask represents.” I think this perfectly defines why people choose to wear masks and it portrays the beauty of it.

Cro, on the other hand, is a german rapper who never really gave an explanation to why he wears the panda mask other than that he feels fresher with it on and Alec Monopoly is a graffiti artist and his masks always hide the bottom half of his face, which is what grafitti masks do. For them, the mask probably is a symbol in some way.

Have a beautiful day, everyone!

Love,
Anaïs