The '90s is a decade that becomes more legendary with time. The magical aura that surrounds Led Zeppelin IV or Ziggy Stardust begins to surround albums like Illmatic and Reasonable Doubt. In the case of '90s hip hop, cover art was a vital piece of any album's identity, and many artists created images that would be as recognizable as their beats and lyrics, if not more so.
How many Illmatic rip-off shirts have you seen? What about Ready to Die? These album covers - the subjects, typography, effects, and overall vibe - have become ingrained in our culture the same way as posters for films like Godfather or Forest Gump.
Today we take a look at the most iconic hip hop album covers of the '90s. Click through the gallery to take a trip down memory lane...
2Pac - All Eyez on Me (1996)
The cover for All Eyez on Me is quintessential Death Row imagery: black, red, and white with a mean-mugging artist on the front. Shakur throws up the westside 'W' with one hand and flaunts his Death Row chain with the other; it's a sign of the times. In '96, the beef between New York and LA was coming to a boil, and this album cover provoked the skirmish while reminding the people just which side you were supporting when you bought this double album. With a running time of over two hours, AEOM features everyone from George Clinton to Nate Dogg, and even ditches the east/west thing temporarily to invite Method Man and Redman on a track. The music lives on, as does the image of Tupac leaning over the back of a chair.
The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die (1994)
If we're going to start with 2Pac, then we must follow up with Biggie. Ready to Die is one of the most infamous hip hop debuts of all time. The Notorious B.I.G. released this one to the world in 1994 under Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records. It was Bad Boy's first release, period.
The album cover depicts a young Biggie, afro and all, floating in white space in stark contrast to Death Row's black backdrop. This baby is so iconic, that it was used in the Supreme x Bad Boy collaboration years back. While the baby picture remains as iconic as Nas' Illmatic portrait, the typography on this one is perhaps even more influential. The black and red letters have been nodded to time and time again throughout fashion and pop culture.
Nas - Illmatic (1994)
Here's an album that changed it all sonically, but also one that has had a huge impact with its image. There are entire articles dedicated to Illmatic nods and rip-offs. Whether it's an up and coming MC or Michael Jordan's clothing line, the image of Nas' debut record is everywhere.
Nas himself nodded to the Illmatic artwork on his follow-ups It Was Written, I Am..., and Nastradamus. When you have something that isn't broke, there's no point in fixing it, and although the logo changed after the first album, that double-image of a young boy and his Queens streets will live forever.
Dr. Dre - The Chronic (1992)
In a lot of ways, Dr. Dre jumpstarted the trend of hip hop culture "sampling" imagery. The Chronic showcases its star in the center of the Zig Zag rolling papers design, making the company forever linked to rap music in the subconscious of humans everywhere. (I wonder if Zig Zag saw a huge boost in sales around the time the record dropped...) The music on this LP is legendary, as is the repurposing of joint paper graphics for the hip hop nation.
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle (1993)
Legend has it that Joe Cool created the album cover for Doggystyle for just $25. Cool took elements from Funkadelic, just like everyone doing the G-funk thing did, and blended them up with his own comic-like cartoon illustrations. "I didn't think it would be iconic, man,” Joe Cool told HipHopDX. "And then when it sold as many as it sold, and I seen my shit up there, it just gave me…like damn. I can't believe it. My artwork is out there, 'cause Snoop let it come. He gave me the opportunity, man. He got me a little bit of 15 minutes of fame up in the world. It's been 20 years, man. He gave me that opportunity. Man I love him for it.”
Cool would work with Snoop again on his Greatest Hits album cover, drawing the Doggfather himself in front of a bunch of stripping bitches...you know, like dogs.
Outkast - ATLiens (1996)
The south is a mecca for rap nowadays, but back in the '90s it received little recognition. Outkast paved the way, though, with a run of classic albums all the way through their discography. Among them is ATLiens, dawning a comic-like album cover that was elaborated upon in the 24-page booklet that came with the album. Artist D.L. Warfield is the mastermind behind this conceptually rich design, and this jumpstarted a lucrative career in designing album art for other artists like Usher, TLC, and Goodie Mob [via].
DMX - Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (1998)
Jonathan Mannion has enough album covers under his name to comprise a list himself, but out of the hundreds of album covers he's responsible for, DMX's Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood still sticks out. DMX, the crazy rap cat we all know him as, kicked off the album's first verse with, "I got blood on my hands and there's no remorse and got blood on my dick cause I fucked a corpse." Straight naaaaasty.
Mannion recalled with MTV News: "We got in, I had chills the entire time we were shooting. He got in with his own pants realizing that he had 14 other pants on a rack that, in the other room that the stylist brought. And we had an incredible day and made amazing pictures."
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)
Wu-Tang have an unmistakable style that is completely unlike anyone else in hip hop. While rappers have enjoyed channeling their inner-gangster or mafia member, very few have embraced eastern culture like the Clan. From their name down to their personas and lyrics, the Clan embody the art of Kung Fu in their rap...something unprecedented before they came along.
The 36 Chambers album cover is the product of Daniel Hastings, a photographer / designer who recalled the process in a piece with Egotripland a few years ago: "I loved their logo. So I was like, let’s take this logo and just make a big fuckin’ gold logo. So I got an artist to carve it out of foam core and paint it gold. And then we got a crazy church location...Today, that place is gorgeous. You can’t rent that place for less than 5 G’s. [Back then] this place was destroyed. There was like rocks coming out of the walls. It was just crazy. But it was like an abandoned synagogue, and I was like, 'Wow, this could work as a monastery.'"
Jay Z - Reasonable Doubt (1996)
Here's another product of Jonathan Mannion, who has done multiple Jay Z albums over their careers. Reasonable Doubt is the celebrated debut from Hov, an album that even he says is his best. The luxurious production played the backdrop from Jay Z's mafioso rhymes, which thrusted him into the mainstream and set him up for a fruitful career.
Just earlier this year, Mannion went on Sway in the Morning to discuss the process...
A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders (1993)
While we still feel the loss of Phife Dawg, we take a second to divert our pain to give props to the Midnight Marauders album art. A Tribe Called Quest decided to make many members of the hip hop community apart of their Tribe with the album art, of which they had three different varieties, one with a red frame, one with a green frame, one with a black frame. Depending on which one you got, there were different hip hop stars on the cover.
The red frame had Grandmaster Caz, DJ Tony Tone, and Pharoahe Monche, among others. The black frame had Del The Funkee Homosapien, P. Diddy, DJ Kid Capri, and the dudes from Pharcyde, among others. Meanwhile, the green frame was stacked with the likes of Chuck D, Too $hort, Kool Moe Dee, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Ad-Rock, MCA, Ice-T, and more.