best & worst hip-hop covers from great hip-hop albums

Great album covers can be good sources of inspiration and examples of excellent graphic design and/or photography. So here is a selection of the best and the worst of Hip-Hop album covers from only great albums, because if did bad album covers from any crappy rap album out there we could be here forever. So I am going to stick to only the best of rap music.

the worst:

Is there anything that really needs to be said about this? Horrible photoshop work on the tattoos and just an all-around bad concept.

This was Nas’ first album in which he broke away from his series of close-up photos of his face against the Queensbridge housing project where he grew up. It was a bad idea. How ridiculous does he look here? I’ve always thought that Nas did not photograph well in the classic Hip-Hop imagery. Maybe it is because lyrically he is so much better than he could ever be visually.

I don’t think I even need to say anything here. I suppose Ludacris is just taking the title of his album literally, but then why the misogynist placement of the woman’s leg which he is about to cannibalize.

This was 50 Cent’s introduction to the world that catipulted him to superstar status. For someone who has such homophobic lyrics I find this album cover ironic.

This is just bad. I’m sure you can all interpret this in your own ways.

You have to admire De La Soul for being totally original when this came out in 1989, but this cover just does not hold up well against the test of time.

Uninspired, that one word says it all.

For the greatest selling Rap album of all-time this is just not very good.

the best:

The illustration was done by Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami, enough said.

Original and powerful. See “The Carter III” and “Ready to Die” for inspired take-offs.

I know Gnarls Barkley is barely Rap, but both covers are just amazing works of art. The colors, illustration and typography are great.

Simple and clean. The orange square in the upper right corner makes it. If you were someone who didn’t know who Madvillain was wouldn’t you be intrigued by this cover?

Jay-Z has a lot of good album covers, but in my opinion this is the best. It is perfect for his “secondary soundtrack” to the 70′s gangster film, “American Gangster”.

This one could almost be bad and who knows, maybe in a few years it will be. But for now, it’s pretty damn good.

I just think the illustration on this is amazing.

I could of easily stuck Tribe’s “Midnight Marauders” and “The Low End Theory” covers on here as well. I just feel this one is the best.

How do you interpret this cover?

Well done piece of art.

Interesting typography and very cool photo. Keep in mind that at this time Ghostface Killah was still in the habit of hiding his face, notice the conscience placement of the shadow.