#10 - A Tribe Called Quest - Beats Rhymes and Life
I actually don't recall much of this album (should give it a listen again), but this cover is awesome. Pretty memorable, good use of color, and the drawings are great. It has a lot of personality, and that's why I like it.
#9 - Nas - Illmatic
This is probably the most influential rap cover of all time. Everyone and their mother have done something that resembles this in a way (a picture of the artist as a kid/baby). Only reason why I don't rank it higher is because the photo quality, understandable, is kinda shit nowadays. I'm also not that big of a fan of the colors and the Nas logo is pretty crappy. The concept is fantastic because, like the album, it tells the story of Nas growing up as he saw it when he was young.
#8 - Wu Tang - Wu Massacre
I recall this album being pretty average, like a throwaway mixtape, but this cover was boss as fuck. Really great comic style that gives the Wu members a lot of personality.
#7 - Common - The Dreamer, The Believer
This album has sort of a "dreamy" atmosphere in all the songs, and this abstract cover does a great job at capturing your attention thanks to the interesting composition and striking gold color.
#6 - Dr. Dre - The Chronic
A lot of the 90's covers were horrible because they were shitty photographs with tons of colors and elements that made them very distracting. Dre went with a simple, clean style that still looks great to this day. I'm a fan of the simplicity; just a classic design with the doc in front.
# 5A$AP Rocky - Long.Live.A$AP
This cover is just a representation of badassery. Rocky looks like a boxer before a match, wrapped with a United States flag. The "bad signal tv" effect is very original, and it goes extremely well with some of the distorted, atmospheric songs in the album.
#4 - Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye tried to be "artistic" with the Watch the Throne and Cruel Summer covers, but they were just pretentious garbage imo. This one is the very definition of artistic. Just like the album, is like a window to Kanye's world that he created. The painting style and use of color is fantastic. There were a couple of variations of the cover, but my favorite is definitely the one with the crown and sword, which is a perfect visual representation of songs like POWER.
#3 - Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
It's great how this cover, just like the album, tries to humanize Eminem, making him look vulnerable in that position, yet at the same time one wonders how fuck up can this kid be for him to be chained. The dark, gritty atmosphere beautifully represents what one will hear in the album in songs like Criminal or Amytiville.
#2 Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager
The execution in the concept of this cover is flawless. Just like the composition of elements in this pic, where 75% is dark, and the other 25% is a beautiful painting of space. In the album, 75% of the songs have a tangibly dark, moody atmosphere, while the rest give a small glimpse of hope, just like the starts and constellations above Cudi's ominous pose.
#1 Big K.R.I.T. - Live from the Underground
By far the coolest illustration I've seen on a cover. From the use of colors, to the drawings, to the font, this cover excels at capturing your attention and wonder what the story behind is. There's no way you can look at this an not at least be intrigued about the album. I give mad props to this fantastic cover because, thanks to it, it made me discover an amazing artist.
