His hyperrealist drawings can’t help but evoke emotion. Compelled by raw, uncensored feelings his passion permeates the page. With every stroke of his pencil, he escorts us into the world of hip hop, inviting us to remember some of music’s greatest stars and recall their lyrics. Perfectly capturing the facial expressions, scowls and accessories of various artists, he expresses the very essence of this specific culture. His drawings of Tupac, Eazy-E, ICE Cube and Biggie are like visual odes to hip hop. But despite popular assumptions, he’s not from any of the socially accepted “hip hop cities, but from Belgium instead. Regardless of having an entirely different lifestyle than most hip hop artists, 32 year old Laurens Jansen’s artistry tells a similar story of the hip hop artists he is drawn to. Using pencil and canvas as his microphone of choice, Jansen’s drawings not only illustrate music’s ability to transcend time, age, ethnicity, and nationality, but it demonstrates heart, passion and legacy as well.