Iconic Hip Hop Album Covers
Recently, Rolling Stone published a list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Times.” As I scrolled the page I was instantly drawn to the artwork accompanying each record synopsis.
The article took me to a time when album imagery swayed influence. These visual cues were especially important when buying records, CDs, or cassettes. The stakes aren’t as high in the streaming era, but cover art still conveys important signals; production value, album themes, and what a musician represents.
Here are my favorite, and arguably the most iconic, hip hop album covers.
“It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” (1988) - Public Enemy
The lyrics on “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” are revolutionary, empowering, and unapologetically anti-establishment. Rhetoric that, in a previous era, would have attracted the attention of the FBI's COINTELPRO.
What better way to capture the record’s radical content than by picturing “hard rhyme sayer,” Chuck D and comical counterpart Flavor Flav, behind bars? The idea was conceived by renowned photographer Glen E. Friedman. “I threw out the idea of them breaking out of jail because they were escaping from this nation holding them back,” Friedman recounts in Vikki Tobak’s 2018 photography book “Contact High: A Visual History of Hip Hop.”
“Straight Outta Compton” (1988) - NWA
NWA’s debut album “Straight Outta Compton” was among the first albums to receive a Parental Advisory Label (PAL). A by-product of the Reagan era culture wars. The now-ubiquitous sticker, to warn parents of explicit content and prevent minors from purchasing indecent material, was a new concept in 1988. Lucky for me, because “Straight Outta Compton” also happens to be the first cassette that I purchased as a kid.
The store cashier didn’t blink as he collected my cash and handed over the gangster rap classic. It wasn't the album's nonexistent airplay that steered me to the record. It was the album cover and likely that black-and-white sticker that solidified my desire to hear the “world’s most dangerous group.” A decision I would not regret, although my parents surely didn’t appreciate me blasting “F*ck tha Police” as I watched the 1992 Los Angeles riots on TV.
“We Can’t Be Stopped” (1991) - Geto Boys
The stories vary, but it always ends with a .22 caliber bullet and Bushwick Bill in the ICU.
It was 1991, and the 3ft 8in-tall member of the Geto Boys had just combined two pints of grain alcohol, a PCP laced blunt, with a side serving of depression. In a moment of twisted logic, he chose to provoke his then-girlfriend (or mother depending on who’s telling the story) to assist in his suicide. He didn’t want to live anymore, but does life insurance payout for suicides? The Houston rapper wouldn’t chance it. The botched attempt would leave him blind in his right eye.
Rap-A-Lot Records mastermind J Prince had the other two members of the Geto Boys show up at the hospital for an impromptu photo shoot. Willie D and a noticeably uncomfortable Scarface are pictured pushing Bushwick Bill in a gurney. Bushwick’s gruesome wound exposed for the camera.
“It’s one of the most famous—and infamous—images in hip hop history,” Scarface writes in his memoir, “Diary of a Madman.”
“Midnight Marauders” (1993) - A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest’s third studio album is arguably their best work. That statement may furrow the brows of some hip hop heads, but there’s no debating the artistry of the “Midnight Marauders” album cover.
It’s as if a hip hop taxidermist set out to collect the heads of the dopest emcees, DJs, and producers of the day. At least 71 music icons appear on the album’s artwork. A “Where’s Waldo?” of rap. The image is a rare demonstration of unity in a music genre often fragmented by rivalry.
“Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” (1993) - Wu-Tang Clan
It was 1993, and I needed a new tape to pop into my beat-up Dodge Shadow’s cassette deck. I was in Panamá, beyond the reach of underground radio antennae signals. Shopping for music was hit or miss.
Danny Hastings’s image of the Staten Island emcees stopped me in my tracks. The album cover for “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” featured foreboding masked figures emerging from a blurry monastery-like background. The photograph was raw, gritty, and visceral, much like the content in the group's groundbreaking debut. I would go on to play that cassette to the point that the song names would no longer appear on the plastic casing.
The Wu were recently on tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).” Click here for images from the show and my concert review.
“Illmatic” (1994) - Nas
Nas’s 1994 “Illmatic” and a young version of yours truly (pictured above)
“Often imitated, never duplicated” is a cliché that easily applies to Nas’s debut album. “Illmatic” is a vivid hip hop coming-of-age story. A tale of a young man who finds salvation in poetry and street dreams. That ethos is captured on the album cover.
A semi-transparent photo, taken by Nas’s father, cornetist Olu Dara, captures a 7-year-old version of the illustrious emcee. The infamous New York, Queensbridge Projects appears in the background of the sepia-colored photo.
Nas recently went on tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Illmatic.” Click here for my concert review.
“Dare Iz a Darkside” (1994) - Redman
The album cover to Redman’s sophomore album “Dare Iz a Darkside” shows the Jersey MC’s screaming head among a field of utility poles. His body is submerged in the ground, which pre-Photoshop, could not have been an easy shoot for photographer Danny Clinch. Nevertheless, he pulls it off, and we have an image that embodies Redman’s funk laced cosmic journey through the dark recesses of his cerebrum.
The image pays tribute to Funkadelic’s iconic “Maggot Brain” album cover. The pioneering funk-rock band’s 1971 record jacket has trailblazing model Barbara Cheeseborough playing the howling victim. Photographer Joel Brodsky took the attention-grabbing photo, which now holds a place among pop art.
“Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version” (1995) - Old Dirty Bastard
Brett Kilroe’s masterful album cover for the debut solo project of the wildest member of the Wu-Tang Clan is an example of art imitating life. ODB’s disheveled expression on a doctored version of his very real public assistance card was a middle finger to the bling era, the system (any system), and all indignities others attempted to foist upon the emcee.
No Limit Records Album Covers - (1995 - 1999)
In the mid-90s, there was no mistaking a No Limit Records artist when you saw their CD on a music store shelf. The artwork was gaudy, garish, and over-the-top. An embodiment of the diamond-encrusted, hyperbolic lyrics that dominated the south at the time.
You can thank Pen & Pixel Graphics, Inc for this often overlooked contribution to hip-hop visual history. The Houston, Texas graphic design firm created wildly imaginative imagery not only for Master P and his expansive roster of rap artists, but also Birdman’s Cash Money Records, and Tony Draper’s Suave House.
Pen & Pixel designed thousands of album covers before shutting down in 2003. They recently came out of retirement to create the cover art for 21 Savage and Metro Boomin's second collaboration album, “Savage Mode II” (2020).
“Things Fall Apart” (1999) - The Roots
The struggle between change and tradition is the central theme of Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel “Things Fall Apart.” The Roots take on a similar motif in their fifth studio album of the same name.
Change being the shifting tide of hip hop as it approached the new Millennium; music as a commodity versus art. Tradition, the U.S. tendency towards violence against people of color. The album cover for “Things Fall Apart” was poignant twenty years ago, but today is a powerful reminder. Change doesn't come easy. The photograph shows two black teenagers running from police officers during a Civil Rights Era riot.
Madvillainy (2004) - Madvillain [MF Doom (MC) + Madlib (producer)]
The black and white portrait of MF Doom for the Madvillainy album is pulled straight from a Rod Serling penned episode of the Twilight Zone.“You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, Madvillainy!”
On the avant-garde album, MF Doom stretches the imagination with his complex, creative, and often hilarious verses. Eric Coleman’s photo perfectly captures the enigmatic, gladiator masked, emcee’s errant gaze. A glimpse of the record’s dastardly theme.
“My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010) - Kanye West
Kanye West as a creature holding a beer bottle while a nude, armless, phoenix-like woman straddles him may not be “beautiful,” but it certainly is dark, twisted, and fantastic.
The cover art for West’s hip hop classic was created by contemporary artist George Condo. It depicts a world of artificial realism that is one part lucid nightmare. The faces of the two sub-human species recall a scene in the 1997 film “Devil’s Advocate.” The protagonist’s wife witnesses a supposed friend’s beautiful face morph into that of a disfigured demon. The movie is about a young idealistic lawyer who allows his vanity to deliver him into a warped reality. Hmm...
“Devil’s Advocate” (1997)
“To Pimp a Butterfly” (2015) - Kendrick Lamar
The 2015, “To Pimp a Butterfly” album cover can easily be the artwork for a post-Trump album. The monochrome photo depicts a group of black men of varying ages celebrating on the White House lawn. The men are showing out for the camera, almost oblivious to the dead judge on the ground in front of them.
Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist Kendrick Lamar has made a career of speaking truth to power. His lyrics tackle topics such as gang violence, substance abuse, and institutional racism. The Compton emcee’s rhymes are cathartic, thought-provoking, and layered with symbolism. The triumphant scene, in Denis Rouvre’s photo, may be Lamar’s interpretation of what a joyful response to the end of the prison industrial complex/systemic racism, as represented by the judge, could look like.
“Astroworld” (2018) - Travis Scott
The David LaChapelle cover for Travis Scott’s “Astroworld” depicts a scene of wonderment and curiosity. An apocalyptic carnival of the absurd that is a feast for the eyes. The day-time scene shows a pair of jubilant kids in the foreground as a family steps into an insidious amusement park entrance in the background.
An alternate album cover demonstrates what goes down in Astroworld when the sun sets and the carnival takes an ominous turn. A sideshow of scantily clad women, contortionists, and an unhealthy dose of debauchery.
When done well, music is a multisensory experience. That’s why meticulously crafted album art will continue to matter. .
What’s your favorite album cover?