Inspired Hip-Hop Album Covers

Feb 11, 2007 – – by Rick Kang

25 Comments

KD
1

February 12, 2007
I’m surprised more godfather covers weren’t included. Most of the original covers were inspired by pop culture and trends themselves. Like the George Clinton and Redman covers immediately remind me of The Colored Museum which was published before both of the album releases and I can see a little Andy Warhol in some of the others. Itd be interesting to see how many artists were inspired, not by another artist, but from the current event or trend itself.
Reinier Meenhorst
2

February 13, 2007
Great post!
neilson133
3

February 13, 2007
EgoTrip’s Book of Rap Lists, pages 170-171!
pEtEr
4

February 13, 2007
Marvellous idea to deal with this subject!
Lebron Jenkins
5

February 13, 2007
This just proves that all rappers are unoriginal. Rock and Roll artist with real integrity who actually have something to say such as Nickleback, Good Charlotte, and Hoobastank would never do something like that. Same goes for Tim McGraw…oh wait, his last album cover was totally ripped of an Iceberg Slim book jacket, forget it.
Lebron Jenkins
6

February 13, 2007
One More Thing…

I heard that for Kanye’s next album, he’s totally gonna rip off the cover of “Man In The Middle” by John Amaechi. Jerry Sloan has signed on to produce the beats as well.
James Roche
7

February 13, 2007
Here’s a huge site with hundreds of copycat album covers, mostly non-hip-hop:

http://www.knockoffproject.com/
G147
8

February 13, 2007
Isn’t Jerry Sloan a basketball coach?
SordidPuppy
9

February 13, 2007
The ZigZags/Chroniccc is the best. That’s not a ripoff at all, more like a dedication, and it works perfectly.

God, Tone Loc is awful. I saw him live when I was about 13, and he was all too happy to accept the advances of some girl who can’t have been much older than me.
superfly
10

February 13, 2007
yo where is the black album?
sweet.fuego
11

February 13, 2007
Dope post.

Mad I ain’t think of it.

The concept would make a dope coffee table book w/ the look-a-like designers discussing what made them choose “that cover” to mimic.
G
12

February 13, 2007
Herbie Hancock - Speak Like A Child +
Foreign Exchange - Connected

Definately influenced

G
Greg
13

February 15, 2007
some of those are my favourite album covers

those are some of my favourite album covers
art hustler
14

February 15, 2007
This just go’s to show that ther nothing new under the sun, we learn from our
past. We can’t reinvent the wheel just make it better.
yakov
15

February 20, 2007
How about comic strips?
Doggystyle by Snoop Doggy Dogg / “Peanuts” by Charles Schulz
alphastart
16

February 21, 2007
Not for nothing, how about the countless other hip hop album covers that were original creations? You can’t pigeon hole the genre just because cats expressed association with classic works/album covers - that’s what hip hop is all about - I applaud the fact that hip hop can be so eclectic!!!

Excellent drop Mr. Kang…
Rick Kang
17

February 22, 2007
I don’t think anyone is saying originality doesn’t exist in Hip Hop album cover art — we’re just exploring a fairly common theme here (Inspired joints).

Stay tuned — obviously many more themes to go thru… including album covers with original concepts!

For my money, “Low End Theory” is still probably the best (original) Hip Hop album cover ever, with the Geto Boys’ “We Can’t Be Stopped” a close second. And therein you can see the diversity of genius — one a subtle, jazzy “concept”, the other a str8t-up photo of a recently-shot-in-the-eye Bushwick Bill on a gurney (and on a brick-sized celly), surrounded by Mr. ‘face and Willie D. Let your nuts hang!
alphastart
18

February 23, 2007
Word…I’ll be tuned in.
Kwis
19

February 25, 2007
Fantastic post. This would be a great coffee tale book. It could also be a dope way to decorate the walls of a studio.
CmcD
20

February 28, 2007
Fantastic post. This would be a great coffee table book. Oh wait, it already is part of a great coffee table book. At least cite the egotrip influence. I hope your next assignment isn’t a critique of contemporary rap music through the guise of a race-specific MC talent search.
Rick Kang
21

March 3, 2007
Look, the Ego Trip Book of Rap Lists is undoubtedly one the best books ever, and yes, the idea of exploring album covers inspired by other album covers isn’t new — duh. Enuff peeps have tackled this subject — why not cite any magazine/book/pundit that’s ever written about hip hop, then?

My next critique is actually of douche-bags who post comments looking for arguments that aren’t there. Stop subliminalling dissing yourself.
Clint
22

May 10, 2007
In my opinion many of these shown covers are deliberately imitating classic covers - not as a rip-off but as a tribute.

The Beatles cover is a good example, Scarface another (His name is Scarface, so it makes sense to show a tribute like this).

The fact that the cover for Dr. Dre’s the Chronic looks like a pack of zig-zags is not because they couldn’t make an original idea, but because a weed (the Chronic) is smoked as joints using zig-zag paper. So in this instance the imitation of a productdesign is used as an artistic gimmick - not as a rip off.
jason
23

May 23, 2007
all the nas albums were inspired by his fathers albums
GoogleBot
24

November 11, 2008
DAESH ONOTOLE V PRAVITELI VSELENNOI!
HairyMan
25

November 11, 2008
Not bad… Not bad.

Inspired Hip-Hop Album Covers

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