NEW YORK, NY.- Darryl Daniel, a hip-hop illustrator who designed the cover for his cousin Snoop Dogg’s genre-defining album “Doggystyle,” and went on to lend his distinctive artistic flair to brands that included Adidas and Supreme, has died. He was 56.

His sister Diondra Daniel confirmed his death. Snoop Dogg acknowledged his death on social media Monday, but neither provided additional information.

Daniel, known in the hip-hop world as Joe Cool, became synonymous with the bright colors, block letters and bawdy canines featured on the “Doggystyle” cover, which sold millions of albums around the world after its release in 1993.

His style would always be linked to the album’s hits including “Gin and Juice” and “Lodi Dodi,” which played in streets and house parties throughout Long Beach, California, greater Los Angeles and the country in the early 1990s, when “Doggystyle” helped to usher in an era of G-Funk music and became foundational for West Coast hip-hop.

The artwork depicts two dogs in suggestive postures while several others peer over a brick wall above a dumbstruck dogcatcher. The risque content drew negative reactions in the early ’90s, with some critics saying the depictions were demeaning to women, but Snoop Dogg fervently promoted Daniel’s work.

On an episode of “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1994, Hall asked Snoop Dogg if he had anything to say about the artwork.

“I want to say what’s up to my cousin Joe Cool for drawing that for me,” the rapper said. “He did the whole thing.”

The compliment on national television was difficult for Daniel to take in. “When he said that, I almost passed out,” Daniel said in a 2013 interview with HipHopDX. “Everybody was clapping.”

Darryl O’Brian Daniel was born Jan. 2, 1968, in Torrance, California, to Henry Daniel, a truck driver, and Annette (Varnado) Daniel. He grew up in the Long Beach area, and while attending Lincoln Elementary School in the city, he realized he had an artistic gift.

He would draw robots and superheroes, imagining and creating his own characters. He was pulled in by Stan Lee’s illustrations, he said in 2015 on a hip-hop YouTube channel, “but I liked what Overton Loyd was doing for Funkadelic, George Clinton, Parliament,” he said. Loyd’s album art was colorful, tinged with psychedelia and captured the carnal spirit of Clinton’s funk songs.

“I wanted my style to be similar to that,” Daniel added. He made graffiti tags for his friends while developing a technique of his own. “You see the ‘Doggystyle’ writing, that’s my font.”

The success of “Doggystyle” and wide recognition of its artwork — however checkered — came as a surprise to Daniel. When he received the offer from Snoop Dogg to design the cover, he was incarcerated in a state prison in Corcoran, California, where he sketched drawings on envelopes and traded them for goods like noodles.

When Snoop Dogg asked him during a phone call in 1991 to illustrate the album, Daniel was skeptical of his cousin’s claim to be working with rapper and producer Dr. Dre. At the time, Snoop Dogg had not yet gained wide acclaim.

But by the time Daniel was released from prison in 1992, the track “Deep Cover” by Dr. Dre and featuring Snoop Dogg was playing on airwaves coast to coast. Daniel was battling a cocaine addiction, and his cousin offered him support and once again expressed interest in his art.

Snoop Dogg pushed for him to overcome his addiction, telling him to “move in with me, I want you to draw my album cover,” Daniel recalled in the 2015 interview. “And I did it.”

After the success of “Doggystyle,” Daniel went on international tours with Snoop Dogg and his collective Tha Dogg Pound, which included Daz Dillinger, another cousin.

“This really hurts; we grew up together,” Daz Dillinger wrote on Instagram after Daniel’s death.

Snoop Dogg posted a video on Instagram of him and Daniel together, with Daniel donning a “Nasty Dogg” shirt, nodding to his stage name when they toured.

In addition to his sister, Daniel is survived by his son, Josiah. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

As Daniel’s art gained more acclaim, his work was used by brands like Adidas and he collaborated with streetwear brand Supreme. He illustrated several more album covers for Snoop Dogg, and one for the Game’s album “1992.” In 2022, Daniel wrote and illustrated a children’s book.

He had more bouts with addiction, but he said in a 2015 interview with Project Save Art, a recovery facility in Long Beach, that he had been sober since 2003.

“I have a lot of love for addicts; I have a lot of understanding of addicts,” Daniel said. In 2015, he donated a painting to Safe Refuge, a sober living facility in Long Beach.

“It was really touching to my soul to see that the people who were in the audience are going through or have been through struggles like me, and they were trying to make a difference,” he said, recalling the donation ceremony. “It was moving that they were there to celebrate my artwork.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.