Former One Direction Singer Zayn Malik Denies Ripping off Lil Wayne’s Album Covers

Former One Direction singer Zayn Malik is prepping the release of his debut solo album, Mind of Mine, his first project since parting ways with the wildly popular English boy band. The album's first single "Pillow Talk" is already a fan favorite, having charted No. 1 on Billboard in seven different countries. But the album's artwork has some people scratching their heads and even calling Malik a swagger jacker because it thematically resembles the album covers for Lil Wayne's previous projects.

Malik's cover consists of a childhood photo of the singer. On his hands are digitally imposed tattoos. It bears a striking resemblance to Weezy's Tha Carter III and Tha Carter IV album covers where the NOLA rapper does the same thing with two of his childhood photos. Fans have been calling the singer out on Twitter and Instagram so he recently took to social media to stick up for himself. According to him, he's had the idea for a long time and had no intentions of copying Tune's albums.

"I'm not tryna be no rapper, my album is me a child .. My ideas have been with me a long time," he wrote on Twitter, "Use your brain, appreciate art don't discriminate what you don't understand."

Malik is attempting to break out from the shadow of his former group after playing an integral role in the band's huge explosion. As a founding member of One Direction he had a hand in all four of their high grossing LPs Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and Four (2014).

Check out Wayne's covers below and judge for yourself.

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