He went from Def Jam to a Mets jam.
The legendary Def Jam graphic artist who created the cover of Biggie Small’s “Ready to Die” has been reimagining the Mets’ logo in a colossal collage he called an “emotional passion project.”
Def Jam Recordings creative director Cey Adams has had the team’s archives at his fingertips — but no solid plans — as he quite literally paints the Amazins’ rich history on the wall of the Mets House, a brand-new dedicated fan space in Union Square.
“I’ve never rooted for another team,” Adams told The Post Sunday from inside the spot.
“It’s just my favorite team and I get an opportunity to make an original piece of art and to be able to go into the Met’s archives and look at my childhood heroes from when I was a kid. This is great … I’m an 8-year-old kid again.”
For Adams’ yet-to-be-finished artwork, the devil is in the details.
From a distance, the 7-foot-by-7-foot logo appears similar to the original — with the iconic city skyline and Queensboro Bridge silhouette on a baseball. But with a closer look, old photographs, city maps and game tickets can be found pasted in every space.
Even a miniature version of the Mr. Met — a version from 1969 when his baseball head was double the size it is today — can be found lurking beside a skyscraper.
All the pieces are sourced from the Mets’ very own catalogs and, for the most part, are plucked and pasted onto the collage at random.
“I’m trying not to have a preconceived idea of what I want to make. I’m just making it on-site in real-time,” Adams explained.
Adams first picked up the paintbrush on Friday, but isn’t sure when the piece will be finished. The process has ebbs and flows, he said, admitting that a heavy stream of Mets fanatics visiting the space has slowed down the schedule — though the interruptions are more than welcome.
“That’s the whole idea! I’m an artist that loves to engage with people, and these are all my favorite things coming together: My love of the New York Mets and making art,” said Adams.
“To be able to do that in an environment that that’s friendly, and to get to see young kids’ faces lit up, their parents, grandparents and people that know the rich history of the club, is a really cool thing.”
Adams’ own infatuation with the Mets started at birth — both he and the Amazins were born in 1962, igniting a “life parallel” to the team.
When the Mets won their 1986 World Series, Adams was in the thick of his own exploding career. Just three years later, he co-founded Drawing Board, Def Jam Recordings’ in-house design and went onto to execute memorable designs including the Beastie Boys’ “Hello Nasty” and Mary J. Blige’s “What’s the 411?”
As his monikers changed from graffiti artist to graphic designer and later author, there’s one title Adams has always maintained: loyal Mets fan.
“I am a fan 12 months out of the year regardless if they’re winning or losing, and it really stems back to just the very first experiences I had coming to the ballpark as a kid. And that’s just never changed. My life has certainly gotten more busy with the work that I do, but it’s like anything that you loved as a child: it doesn’t go away.”
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