Top 5 Best Covers

Newest member of the Mesh Team, photographer and graphic designer is me, David Zinyama. Howdy. . .

In my first post I'm going to kick it off with my favourite one of best 5 hip-hop covers of all time in n particularly order.

1. Midnight Marauders (1993) by A Tribe Called Quest

Featuring over 70 headshots of the hottest DJ’s and MC’s of the time, the cover art and corresponding booklet featured everyone from the Beastie Boys to Ice T to Kool Moe Dee to MC Lyte.

2. Graduation (2007) by Kanye West

Always artistically interesting, Kanye West commissioned renowned Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami to create the cover of his third LP, Graduation. Like Andy Warhol did for the Rolling Stones before him, Murakami stayed true to Kanye’s fetishes (teddy bears, the ’80s, school culture) while injecting his own trademark style of candy colored explosions and vibrant anime into the piece. The result? A mix of hip-hop and high art that proved rap music had come a long way since the days of No Limit album covers.

And also to mention, since Kanye West came out, all his albums have been illustrated. . .l love it.

3. Illmatic (1994) by Nas

This has to be for me one of the memorable covers in hip-hop of all time featuring a picture of a young Nasir superimposed over his childhood neighborhood of Queensbridge, New York, the Illmatic’s cover managed to encapsulate the album’s major themes in one photo: poverty, desolation, the loss of childhood innocence. Like the music itself in the album, the cover art later influenced the work of MC’s like Biggie, Wayne and many more. I LOVE COVERS WITH MEANINGS

4. Straight Outta Compton (1988) by N.W.A.

Much like the album’s lyrical content, the cover of N.W.A.’s 1988 gangsta rap classic was a wake-up call to the American public—the inner city was at war and the kids had guns. The cover, which featured the six members of N.W.A staring menacingly into the camera with Eazy-E brandishing a pistol, enraged everyone from Newsweek Magazine to the FBI. The outcry led to two million copies sold and a revelation in the entertainment industry—gangsta rap had arrived and things would never be the same.

5. Recovery(2010) by Eminem

2010 Best Album Cover

At first l did not understand why there was 2 covers, in fact 3(rumored) covers made for this album and at first when l seen the covers, they didn't look to me like Eminem covers compared to his previous album covers in the past as they have been either horrific or whatever you want to call it. But this one surprisingly reflecting to the music itself, Eminem takes two different approaches on the cover art of his 7th album, Recovery, and the first one shows Eminem on the road to "Redemption"  as a "clean" rapper, and the second cover, presumably the cover for the deluxe edition album, shows how is private life is public and no secrets can be hidden as he puts his life on display.

Posted by: David Zinyama