Zayn Malik Defends His Album Cover And Denies Copying Lil Wayne: ‘I’m Not Tryna Be No Rapper’

The (arguable) highlight of our week was the moment that Zayn Malik returned to our television screens and gave his first solo performance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

The Bradford-born star really spoiled us as he also revealed the artwork for his upcoming album ‘Mind of Mine.’ The cover features a throwback photo of Zayn looking adorable as a baby – and covered in tattoos.

No, Zayn didn’t scribble on his arm with a crazy marker in his youth, the ink work has been photoshopped on.

After unveiling the new album cover on Wednesday night, the 23-year old found himself defending it the very next day as people pointed out comparisons between his and rapper Lil Wayne’s album.

As a reminder, this is Zayn’s cover for Mind of Mine:

And this is Lil Wayne’s cover for Tha Carter III released in 2008:

So they both opted for inked up, fetus versions of themselves – but, as we know, this is not necessarily a result of ‘copying’ (just take a look at Coldplay and Bring Me The Horizon’s recent album cover debacle).

Zayn was the first to point out this fact, tweeting: “I’m not tryna be no rapper, my album is me a child .. My ideas have been with me a long time.” He also followed up with a tweet directed towards his critics.

Copyright [Twitter/@zaynmalik]

ZAYN – we appreciate your art.

He later retweeted a user that commented with literally the best line of defence: “Lil Wayne didn’t trademark using baby pictures as cover art fam. Zayn just following legends that’s it.”

Copyright [Twitter/@southsidezain]

Case closed.

Mind of Mine is set to be released March 25, until then we will be listening to Pillowtalk and It’s You on repeat.