Today's blog is going to be relatively short, but I think it'll get people getting going through their cd collections a little bit, or at least looking on the internet to make a decision. What do you think is the best hip hop album cover of all time? I have a few that you probably have to consider, but it might be kind of hard to narrow it down. Some might even surprise you, but I have my reasons.

Now, we all know that Nas has had some great album covers. However, I think the two you have to consider are of course Illmatic and then his newest one Untitled. Given everything that was behind Untitled and the meaning of the whole album, the artwork was hard. And Illmatic set the precedent of children's faces and babies on albums.

    


Let's continue with the East Coast covers, shall we. How about By All Means Necessary? I mean, he imitated Malcolm. What more can you say?



Then, there's Biggie. I know Ready to Die album cover comes up a lot, but in terms of concepts, I thought the Life After Death cover fit perfectly.



There was also DMX's Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood. The all white background with him covered in blood made a statement.



Finally, before we move on to the Westside, I gotta throw Reasonable Doubt in there as well. The classic mafia look really worked and even though a face isn't even on the cover, it's still one you won't forget.



Let's move on. On the Best Coast lol (no beef with anybody) we have a few. Now, I don't know if Ice Cube is really known for his album covers and granted this was nowhere near his best album, but the Lethal Injection artwork fit the concept of the title very well. His Death Certificate cover may have been even better though. Ice Cube, never one to shy away from controversy, really did a number by making the toe tag read "Uncle Sam."

    

And then there is Tupac, who, at least in my opinion, didn't have many great album covers, but this one, right before his death, for Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory was a bold statement. Now, I usually don't approve of people comparing themself to Christ, but I'm taking it at face value here and the album cover still has to be mentioned.




Ok, now on to the South. I think there are actually some great album covers that came from some Southern artists. First, Outkast had a couple of good artwork covers with both ATLiens and Aquemini. I like that they dealt more with artwork than photography, and ATLiens really stuck with the Alien theme.

    

Also, I thought that Goodie Mob's Soul Food album cover was excellent. Just a great album cover.



These are some of my greatest ones, but what is the best? Some notable others might be Chicken & Beer from Ludacris. This might not be the best, but in terms of fitting the title of the album, they did a great job. Kanye's Graduation cover was good as well, with him going and getting an acclaimed artist to handle his work. I thought that even Doggystyle (clearly I'm a fan of hand drawn artwork)  and Redman's Muddy Waters  stood out as well.

Personally, I think there are two that I could see taking the cake.  I definitely like the message that Untitled was sending with its cover, especially considering what the title was going to be called. However, I also love the Death Certificate cover. That was clearly a direct attack on America while still maintaing the message of the album title. A true classic.

Well, that's my thoughts. How about you. Any covers that I left off that should be up there? Which one do you think deserves the top spot? Let me hear it.

And before I get out of here, check out the interview that I will be holding with an MC coming out of my hometown, Oakland, CA. His name is Miles Brandon and he has a mixtape dropping on Friday. Below is the first video from his video blogs that you can find on Youtube. Its kind of like the Diddy blog. So check out the video below, learn a little about him and then check out the interview on Friday and get the mixtape.




Peace.