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What Are Your Favorite Hip-Hop Album Covers?

Lambtron

Unconfirmed Member
The GOAT.

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I have this album framed on my wall. I've always found it to be one of the most visually striking album covers.


For the longest time I thought it was a painting but if you look closely you can see that it's actually a photo of a person who's been painted.
 
I don't like this album, but I listened to it, but this cover caught my eye and it's damn good. firstly, I just appreciate how poppin the colors are and the image quality. Too many of these rap covers just look dull and ashy to me like those Tribe Called Quest covers. I'm not sure why y'all like those. With this Semi Hendrix album cover there's a lot going on visually. There's two people sitting behind a food counter, some child sitting underneath playing the drums, and some giant dude sitting underneath the thingy there. You have the weird cabbages and red plants. The counter and background is straight black. The weird ghostly smoke and the creatures floating above have a Asian feel to it. There's definitely some Asian influence here and it makes it feel like it's taking place in some kind of magical void. The only bad thing about it in my opinion is that it's hard to read the artist's name on it. The artist went a little too crazy with the fire.
I love both the cover and the album, but I really like Ras Kass.

A lot of the other picks here I'm assuming people just like the album and have good associations with the image or are joking. ATCQ's Low End Theory is a cool cover.
 
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This is Anquette's single cover for Ghetto Style/Shake It (Do the 61st). Most images of the net look dull as fuck and faded. I got this one from Spotify and I assume they touched it up. I admit it does look kind of weird. The lighting on Ray Ray on the right almost makes her look like she's from another photo, but I love environment in this cover. Anquette are from Miami and I assume this a boat from the docks they're on. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the ship wheel and Anquette Allen and then to, the rope on the pole, Ray Ray on the right, then it works to the rest of the ship. I do wonder if the random white lady working in the back was intended to be in the shot.
The 80s text in the top right is visually popping too. When I look at this I start to smell sea air and imagine seagulls flying over. I'm really looking at this shit so I noticed the three little cracks on the bottom right. If Spotify did touch up the cover then that makes me wonder why they didn't remove those three cracks right there. They're small and they can easily be covered with the color picker and the pencil tool. The cracks don't really bother me though, in fact I think it adds to it since they're not that noticeable.

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This was one of my favorite album covers of 2015. Akua Naru's The Miner's Canary was designed by the talented Tamara Natalie Madden. She's a fine painter and did an amazing job on this album cover. My admiration for this one is in the skill of this portrait, the colors once again and the mix of mediums. The torso has a collage/picasso look to it. I forget what you call it. I'm out of touch with my art terms, but it is interesting how she goes with something flat for the body, but has the head and hands in 3D. It's just a remarkable cover.
 

mortal

Banned
Some amazing music and artwork have been posted in this thread. I'll try not post what's already been posted. Here are some of my favorites...

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
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Pusha T - King Push ~ Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude
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MF DOOM - Mm..Food
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Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
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Blu & Exile - Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them
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Blu - York (Each image/letter is an alternate cover)
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Mndsgn- Yawn Zen
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Emay - Ilah
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Roc Marciano - Marci Beaucoup
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Freddie Gibbs - Shadow of a Doubt
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Kanye West - Yeezus (alternate cover by Richie Pope)
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Bones - Useless
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I love both the cover and the album, but I really like Ras Kass.

A lot of the other picks here I'm assuming people just like the album and have good associations with the image or are joking. ATCQ's Low End Theory is a cool cover.

I do fuck with Kass. I liked Blasphemy and Understandable Smooth might be my favorite instrumental, but then he's rapper. I shouldn't give him credit for that beat. For Tribe, someone else posted a higher quality version of it. I can see it now. Majority of the time when I see it on the net it looks bland as fuck.
 
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