While traveling to Japan for a few days in 2006, West visited Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami at the artist's Kaikai Kiki studio in the country's city Asaka. West told Murakami that he is a fan of him and asked about the artist's works; Murakami drew designs for West during the meeting and the two of them arranged to meet at a later date in the United States. The cover art of the single was designed by Murakami. Accompanying artwork for the album's other singles was also created by Murakami, alongside him overseeing the art direction of "Graduation". Despite "Can't Tell Me Nothing" not achieving the same level of radio success as the album's subsequent singles, West took pride in the fact that the song had marked his first hood anthem, and it gave him a new level of popularity in the hood. West also explained during an interview with "Concrete Loop" that the song "is like the people's anthem and radio didn't want to play it," while comparing the challenge faced by him to playing a video game. In the same interview, West stated that the song's "actual melody is made to rock 50,000 people," which he called the reason as to "why it's so simple." According to West, he tried to step up as a rapper with the song and West recalled that after fellow rapper Andre 3000 heard the song "he said, 'I believe you.'" West named "Can't Tell Me Nothing" as an example of him creating a track "that people never heard before."