20 Classic Hip Hop Album Covers Recreated in LEGO

Dec 11, 2008 –   – by formatmag

After 50 years as an industry leader, LEGO has become a staple in any kids toy box. In more recent times the mini-figs and legendary building blocks have been used to recreate famous landmarks, classic photographs and now: 20 Classic Hip Hop Album Covers Recreated in LEGO.

Mos Def — New Danger

The Game — Doctors Advocate

De La Soul — 3 Feet High and Rising

Common — BE

A Tribe Called Quest — Midnight Marauders

Gangstarr — No More Mr. Nice Guy

Ghostface Killah — The Big Doe Rehab

Dr. Dre — The Chronic

EPMD — Back in Business

KRS One and Marley Marl — Hip-Hop Lives

Nas — Stillmatic

Jedi Mind Tricks — Violent By Design

Method Man & Redman — Blackout

Outkast — Stankonia

Wyclef Jean — The Carnival

Run DMC — King of Rock

Slick Rick — aka RickyD

Alkaholiks — Likwidation

Beastie Boys — Hello Nasty

Biz Markie — The Biz Never Sleeps

TI — King

Big Pun — Capital Punishment

Super Lover Cee and Casanova RUD — Girls, I Got ‘em Locked

Old Dirty Bastard — N***a Please

Shot in the Format studio by Nick Hanekom with styling/art direction by Jaici Chen and layout/design work by Glenn Manucdoc.

130 Comments


  • Aaron Irizarry

    1


    these are awesome… i didn’t see any 2 live crew ones though

  • BothTeamsPlayedHard

    2


    Aside from the loose use of the word “classic,” this is one the greatest things I’ve see in a loooong time. Spectacular work.

  • Chuck

    3


    My favorite is the old dirty bastard an EPMD

  • cnote

    4


    i guess they don’t make black lego men

  • OGhiphop

    5


    This was a great project! I dig the blackout cover the most. Reposted at: OGhiphop.com!

    Thanks

  • thatguy

    6


    doctors advocate? classic? LOL!!!!!!!!!!

  • Matt

    7


    Why?
    This is crap, why waste your time and energy on something that ends up this bad?
    If I were one of the artists I would be upset my work was involved.

  • jchicalata

    8


    sweeet.

  • bird

    9


    “Classic” indeed, but this is probably the second best lego-related thing I’ve seen in a while. The first is obviously thebricktestament.

  • bonusup

    10


    I’m guessing there’s no brown lego men then :)

    Some of the pics look funny. Ghostface Killa looks like George Michael. Outcast look like the BeeGees. Dr. Dre looks like yer man from East 17 or one of the Bros twins.

  • asdf

    11


    The Lego version of “Super Lover Cee and Casanova RUD” looks like two Fred Mercury’s giving each other rub downs.

  • Margo

    12


    Dear Lego.
    Make black Lego people.

  • clubba lang

    13


    dope…reposting this.

  • Says

    14


    Wow, listen learned: they only make white lego men

  • kidkaracho

    15


    you didn´t even rebuild them precisely and some of them are really bad, like the stankonia-cover.
    come on, a anker on big bois-shirt??

  • Tysonz

    16


    Why?
    This is crap, why waste your time and energy on something that ends up this bad?
    If I were one of the artists I would be upset my work was involved.
    ^^^^
    Matt’s gayass musta tried this and failed thats why dude is mad. The BIg Pun one was the best.

  • Dims

    17


    all this is junk…i could have done all this in microsoft word. maybe next time use some He-Man figures or some Thundercats

  • wow

    18


    damn how is this classic without Jay-z Reasonable Doubt and Nas Illmatic ???????????

  • lopez35

    19


    stankonia. love the black long sleeve to represent 3000’s body.

  • djzo

    20


    this will be on kanyes blog tomorrow

  • piffton

    21


    doctors advocate a classic? LMFAO you lose all credibilty, sukk a dick and this sh1t was wack. smfh. get a life.

  • Dino

    22


    Matt
    Why?
    This is crap, why waste your time and energy on something that ends up this bad?
    If I were one of the artists I would be upset my work was involved.

    Get a life. If it’s crap it only reflects the music!

  • Droux

    23


    there is dont even a white lego man … there all yellow :P

  • nico ²

    24


    hey guys, there’s no white or black lego, only asian ones –> lego’s creators r fuckin racists :D

  • jchicalata

    25


    they aren’t white lego people. they’re ALL ASIAN.

  • Kid

    26


    They don’t always work, but A for effort. Some of these are pretty funny. Surprised no NWA, Ice T or 2 Live Crew tho.

    And damn, do you niggas just wake up to hate?? Enjoy the shit for the creative shit that is, y’all aint doin’ any better.

  • jchicalata

    27


    clearly.

  • youssef

    28


    why white/black lego men
    yellow been alway s ok to me

  • j

    29


    there are black lego people…
    the basketball sets + Mace Windu, etc

  • Nat

    30


    They do have black LEGO men - they have a black Lando in the Star Wars collection of LEGO toys.

  • Sara

    31


    They don’t make black lego men and they don’t make white lego men. Last I heard, no race has the skin of bright yellow.

  • charo

    32


    The Common one cracks me up for some reason

  • Mario

    33


    # Sara

    31

    December 12, 2008

    “They don’t make black lego men and they don’t make white lego men. Last I heard, no race has the skin of bright yellow.”

    Asians

  • mrmocha

    34


    I love the “make black lego people” comments as if the canary yellow pretzel-can heads represent whites?

  • naeem

    35


    lmao same here but i love the ‘be’ cover

  • ortin

    36


    .. just a note.. they don’t make “black” lego people like they don’t make “white” lego people… LEGO PEOPLE ARE YELLOW ONLY!!

  • Mads K

    37


    Black lego men. Good point! Unfortunatly many of the artists on the album covers are black men. Not yellow! LOL!

  • Mister_Nicomede

    38


    I love the Common one. I’m not sure why.
    A lot of the hands are backwards though.

    Anyways, Super Lover Cee and Casanova RUD had me laughin’.

    And for those of you who don’t know, there are black Lego people. I think they’re specific to movies though. Like Lando from Star Wars and such.

  • Alijah

    39


    They’re saying the COVERS are classic not the albums.

    Awesome

  • onema

    40


    lol @ white lego men…they look yellow to me

  • Gary

    41


    Where’s Eric B. & Rakim’s “Paid In Full”? Now that I’d like to see…

  • Luis

    42


    I laugh because the legos take way the “rough” image of these covers…I laugh at the Dr. Dre — The Chronic one which is my favourte among all

  • RC

    43


    ahahah this is funny
    good job

    the game’s doctor’s advocate’s da best!

  • James

    44


    These blow; what a waste of time.

  • Mistar

    45


    ohuenno, real classik

  • dj bizkid

    46


    haha!…awesome!

  • Tim

    47


    Yo this is TIGHT!!!

    Threw it up on my blog! Check it out!

    http://www.thehiphopcorner.com

  • ac

    48


    Classic refers either to the albums themselves or the covers, but either way, these aren’t the 20 best. Cut in any case.

  • DJ Bozo

    49


    WAY COOL!
    Common’s Be album turned out real nice!
    Got any more for us? Hit us with a b-side!

  • Episode

    50


    It’s funny because Common is actually yellow in the Be cover.

  • A

    51


    I love how people think Lego is discriminating because they don’t make black people. Last time I walked around, I didn’t see anybody with bright yellow skin. Lego minifigs don’t have races. They’re simply yellow.
    Back on to the topic, some of these are really good, especially Common’s Be. Although, they have the guys from De La Soul in the wrong order.

  • MJ PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN

    52


    Very nice work…I could contribute some Canadian artists! http://www.mandyj.biz

  • Chabrol

    53


    This is like a good glass of wine, it will only get better with age. Just wait as it’s forwarded at a funny e-mail to you…

  • Craig

    54


    I like this thing you got going on..Keep it up…

  • stefano picco

    55


    Great work, I love it ;D

  • trashcando

    56


    I fail to see how some of these are classic (The Game…are you kidding me?!…KRS ONE AND MARLY MARL…uh…) and secondly, simply adding lego people does not make a cover lego-ized. I thought you were going to use bricks to recreate the covers. This is just lazy…sorry dude.

  • Buckylove

    57


    wheres reasonable doubt and biggie

  • Huelo

    58


    The only similarities in these are the title treatments of the albums. I realize that using legos can’t entirely mimic the person in the original album, but some of the camera angles are just too different. These are poorly executed and the attention to detail is also inconsistent, (see the Biz Markie cover for example). Was this a project for Junior High photoshop class? In other words - “TOTALLY LAME!”

  • JayZak

    59


    the Violent by design cover of Jedi Mind Tricks is best!!! I like those trees and stuff :D

  • ProphetTheRebel

    60


    Comical and creative. I’ll give you that.

  • neodub

    61


    HELLO!!!! Lego doesn’t make white or black people. THEY’RE ALL YELLOW!!!!!!!! If one had to be racist they would say “Lego makes only Asian people!” If you want to get technical, white people are more like peach, black people are more like brown. Period. Done. Next…

    BTW I thought these would be made of the lego blocks to make up the album cover, not some bad-photoshop job of just lego people. Very lame.

  • YouDemandTooMuch

    62


    For all of you who want black and/or white lego man, GET OVER IT!!!
    just because lego people are yellow doesn’t mean they’re asians, or elso how would you explain the Simpsons? Aren’t they average white americans?

    BTW, all the photo-shopped covers are all (if not mostly) black people, who’s being racist now?! Maybe that’s why it’s SOOOOOOOOOOO LAME

  • The 5th Letter

    63


    This is sooooo hot!

  • Maria

    64


    Lol! So hilarious! I <3 it! ;D

  • somebloke

    65


    LEGO Star Wars has just about all the colors you could want. Darth has a grey head, Mac Windo is black, Leia is kinda pink, plus there’s blue, green and all other colors in there. The only ‘white’ heads that LEGO makes are reserved for skeletons.

    King of Rock (have the album as a picture disk) - love the album, but why couldn’t you use the right colored hat & glasses!? Poor finishing to a good idea.

  • Alice

    66


    Comical and creative. I’ll give you that…

  • rerun

    67


    shitsweak

  • Shorty

    68


    ahh.. really funny :)

    nice work

  • Morten

    69


    The Cronic is hillarios, simply because it looks so lame.

    ps. Im from Denmark, we invented lego back in the 50’s, and all danes were yellow back then. We’re ok now :)

  • Aim

    70


    You’ve wasted 5 minutes of my life and I want them back.

  • CK

    71


    Shows the ethnic variety of Lego…

  • Myskoo

    72


    oh maaan…:D:D..
    i really like stillmatic..:D:D..
    what a parrot..:D:D:D

  • Mixtape Wall

    73


    Great concept!!

  • bob

    74


    lmao. that is dope.
    lol @ all the angry Jay-Z stans mad because Reasonable Doubt isnt up there. smfh. make your own Reasonable Doubt if you want it up there so bad.

  • Hustlesimmons

    75


    hey that T.I. King albums cover was a tripp. im lovin the whole idea, taking classic hip-hop albums and turning them into creative artwork

  • Bent2009

    76


    How the hell can Lego sell Star Wars & Men In Black Lego sets without brown skinned lego men. Where’s Billy Dee Williams, Samuel L Jackson & Will Smith? And while I’m at it how come every one always leaves Jazzy Jeff out? How about a “He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper cover”? Or maybe Fugees “the Score”. That album was way more of a “classic” than any of Wyclef’s solo material. Where’s “Criminal Minded”? That album is one of the pivotal moments in hip hop. “Ready To Die”? “It Takes A Nation of Millions” would of been funny to see.

  • zTy

    77


    Thats Bullshit.

    It works only on the covers where type or anything old is left.

    Georgeous Bullshit.

  • zTy

    78


    Sorry, again…

    Bullshit!

  • HipHop is Alive

    79


    http://hiphopfrequency.com

    Nice drop. Funny as HELL

  • FT

    80


    There are some really nice pieces by Balakov : Classics in Lego http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/sets/72157602602191858/

  • edward

    81


    While “Hello Nasty” is far from the greatest Beastie Boys record, they’re not on the cover of “Paul’s Boutique.” But “Check Your Head” would’ve been acceptable.

  • rebelcpt

    82


    “Aim

    December 15, 2008
    You’ve wasted 5 minutes of my life and I want them back.”

    it took you FIVE MINUTES to decide you wouldn’t like this? how does a post like this get ANY angry/negative comments?

  • blucas!

    83


    Someone really needs to do “Paid in Full”

  • Q

    84


    that is the hottest thing ever!

    what? no love for PE or NWA?

  • idiocy

    85


    To the perennial left-wing victimhood cult who are claiming that there should be black lego, and that lego is racist, I have something to say to you:

    The lego men are bright yellow. Take a look again: YELLOW.

    This is not the white-man-conspiracy-trying-to-keep the-black-folk-down you are looking for.

    And for the other idiot progressive above who mentioned the tie between American whites and Lego: Lego was created in Northern Europe, not America. Last I looked Denmark doesn’t owe your country a thing. Stop the worldwide guilt trip and projecting your ideologies onto the rest of the planet (or what I like to call ‘American Privilege’).

  • moneybaggz

    86


    wow this is amazing format is the dopest most inovative website around. keep up the good work.

  • Teddy

    87


    While “Hello Nasty” is far from the greatest Beastie Boys record, they’re not on the cover of “Paul’s Boutique.” But “Check Your Head” would’ve been acceptable…

  • SSP

    88


    Good stuff. I especially like the EPMD cover, think it’s the funniest by far..two awkward lego fists bumpin

  • Judy S

    89


    LEGO mini-figure faces have always been yellow, which promotes the sense that there are no differences in people.

  • Micja

    90


    ahahah thanks for doing alkaholiks

  • Inchism

    91


    ‘aside from using the word classic…’ eeeerrr, shut the fuck up poindexter.

  • newmoney

    92


    There could have been alot more work done on the post production. Some of the replica’s are terrible, but the idea is great.

    Props to you guys for creativity, and originality, you just need a better Photoshop guy to silence the haters.

    maybe next time.

  • casanova rud

    93


    Yooooooooo, this lego shit is hot to death. Thanks for doing us up. Nice

  • digitaldowns

    94


    All these comments….”why the Legos gotta be white” “Lego don’t make any black people” Seriously…..it’s a toy. And the people are YELLOW! Not white, not black, not Indian, not any other natural human shade….they are a completely unnatural shade of YELLOW. They are LEGO people…..geez. A toy can’t even escape this crap anymore. This was a great project. Nice work. And by the way, Legomen are YELLOW.

  • Seraphim

    95


    Nice. Very creative. De La Soul and Nas are my favourites. Cheers

  • douchebag

    96


    im surprised there are so little black legos

  • Tyler

    97


    Lol sick

  • Cey adams

    98


    I’m happy 3 of my cover designs made the cut. EPMD, BLACKOUT, BEASTIE BOYS

  • gumby

    99


    Hey! Lego with attitude!

  • hmmmm

    100


    How is this funny? I was excited about the concept, but actual results don’t really seem to work. Disappointing.

  • White for life

    101


    nice work!

  • web design

    102


    Big Pun, Run DMC, & ACTQ = all great lol

  • Jokerjur13

    103


    Hahaha Awsome this is like seriously one of the coolest things i have seen around on the net keep it up.
    ps they may not look like the real them but cmon its lego and what theyve done to make them seem that good is nothing short of amazingly radical.

  • jody harris

    104


    Too funny! The outkast one and the game are crazy!

  • Lza

    105


    Everyone posting bitching about “there are no black/brown lego men” are ignorant motherfuckers.

    The Lego’s are fucking yellow. How is that representative of any culture’s skin colour (because let’s face it, asian people’s skin colour isn’t ACTUALLY yellow). Everyone needs to shut up and stop their politically correct bitching. Over half the album posted have the artists talking about “slangin’ dope” or “bitches” but noone’s fucking up in arms about those, but somehow the little miniature YELLOW figurines skin colour matters?

  • Lza

    106


    Shut the fuck up. If you’re gonna allow artists to talk about pedalling drugs and fucking sluts (which I personally don’t give a fuck about…artistic freedom should be completely open)than don’t be stupid enough to whine like a petulant little fucking child about Lego’s.

  • dadadoo

    107


    you’re all idiots

  • joe grotfeld

    108


    this is the stupidest and poorest executed thing i’ve ever seen in my life. the artists shouldnt be ashamed, format mag should for giving this shine….

  • kenash

    109


    these are hot as hell… I love the O.D.B. one, The Nas & Ghost face ones are good too.

  • Gabbo the Great

    110


    lol. i switched all the covers shown here in my itunes to be legos. favorite has to be the king of rock

  • Mr. Wang

    111


    Thats the best ever….!
    I love it. Nice job.!
    Take care.

  • Harry

    112


    why does outkast look like hall and oates?

  • citizenzombie.

    113


    Just to add my two cents.
    First, and most importantly, (as if this dead horse hasn’t been beaten enough) there is obviously no racism being portrayed, nor… I assume, is there any one race being intentionally MIS-represented. So to all the people dreaming of white or black Lego men, please seek therapy and get yourself a support group. It’s well past time for a big hug.

    Also, fuck all the people who jumped up to say Lego men are Asian. You, too, are just as ignorant. I think it’s funny how (probably) NONE of us ever questioned Lego-man’s race, when we were children.

    It took years of practice to become this ignorant and ethnocentric. I truly believe, if it were SUCH a big issue, people would have complained about it a long time ago.

    Just a few more comments. Bear with me.

    To “Lza.”

    Fuck off. How dare you address the other members of this post as “ignorant motherfuckers” when your just as guilty. Hypocrite.Why would you even open the link to look at Lego remakes “classic” hip-hop covers, if your belief is that hip-hop’s main purpose is to serve as an outlet for “to talk about pedalling drugs and fucking sluts?”
    You clearly show that you have no concept of hip-hop, other than what you heard from your racist mother and father, or saw on the evening news. I take offense when someone disrespects my culture. You mention that “over half of the albums posted” mention “slangin’ dope” or “bitches”… but, other than Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” … I don’t see any references to “dope” or “bitches.”
    While the content of SOME hip-hop/rap music MAY be geared toward that kind of message. I’ll correct myself. While SOME artists promote those kinds of negative messages, it is NOT the whole of hip-hop, hip-hop-music, or hip-hop culture.

    That message doesn’t even encompass MOST of hip-hops now 30 years of music, art, dance, literature, prose, or culture. Since you’ve obviously NOT listened to any hip-hop worth hearing, you are making a generalization. So I’ll make one about you. You are the ignorant motherfucker. Do a little homework. And may God bless you for your ignorance.

    To all of the posters, who mentioned the true purpose of this post, I agree with you. Let’s congratulate the artists on THEIR ATTEMPT at doing something unique. I didn’t like most of the covers, either. But I do like to see people USING THEIR BRAINS and being creative.

    There are a number of covers I would have liked to see. I wonder why they didn’t do (in no particular order) Enter the 36 Chambers/Wu-Tang Clan, Paid in Full OR Follow the Leader/ Eric B. and Rakim, Straight Outta Compton/ NWA, The Score/The Fugees.

    P.S. Fuck Jay-Z and Kanye, too. Just my opinion.

  • Leshell

    114


    I had the same thought - why don’t they look black? Please understand, corporate america has taken so much from the hip-hop industry and turned it upside down (for profit mostly, if nothing else). Hip-hop is authentic, so every time it’s presented, those who know about it authentically, want to keep that same spirit. These legos do not…and if the Lego Corp. understood that, they would release these with much more representation. Nice idea, but they look ridiculous.

  • Ansom The Beboy

    115


    When I saw these covers, I din’t expect them to be perfect, yet I still enjoyed it.

    But when I scrolled down and read some of these comments, man some of yall take this shit WAY TO SERIOUSLY!!!!

    Even when someone wants to create something that’s made to enjoy, people still wanna complain.

    Oh well, it is what it is…

    COMING SOON: ENOUGH OF THAT/I-O-E-N-O (This is how an Underground MC sees Commercial Rap)

  • Hackmaskate

    116


    LOl its amazing post enjoy http://www.hackmaskate.net

  • Valp

    117


    Brilliant idea!! Luv ‘em all :)

  • Jean Pierre

    118


    When I was 7 years old i knew Lego was cool. But I could not convince my two older sisters.
    Now I can.
    Thank you ;)

  • Miguel

    119


    The Common cover is brilliant. Lol

  • JC

    120


    Some were good, some weren’t good. I feel like some were just randomly thrown in. KRS-One & Marley Marl that album came out last year and nobody bought it because nobody still buys new Marley Marl and KRS albums, if you needed a KRS album, do Criminal Minded.

    Do more classics that people would recognize.

    Jay Z - Reasonable Doubt or Blueprint
    Tupac - All Eyez On Me
    Camron - Confessions of Fire or Come Home With Me

  • Distrakt

    121


    DOPE!

  • JayDee

    122


    lool, this has made my day

  • lugomina

    123


    Neat idea but minimal effort. A lot of them just look like.. Scarface. Well some are nice, and some are huge misses by a mile. Using the waiter head with the pointed moustache.. bah.. Andre 3000 looks worst in my opinion - and Dr. Dre! Sorry, but even if you just use yellow heads, there has really been a lot of different male Lego face expressions over the years. And hairdoes.. and.. don’t you even have one brown torso? Buy some Castle orks and turn them around. And as for really twisted legs or arms goes - you can always build some with smal bricks so they look more “accurate”..

    Lego DID make a number of brown skinned basketball players (an old Sports set). There was about 10 of them (or maybe more) with names and distinctive features on each of them, from Shaq to Vince Carter to Kobe. And there is someone dark and angry, with glasses, in the old Spiderman set. You can get them all nice and cheap except for the Star Wars Mace Windu who’s up to 50 dollars on BrickLink. The nice, smiling SW brown Bespin Guard however is cheap too.

  • DC

    124


    This is great! One of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while.

  • bossplaya

    125


    da legos are not white people……they YELLOW
    dats their colour

  • chimp

    126


    is it just me, or are these really very gay?
    especially the Gang Starr, and Super Lover Cee and Casanova Rud one (which looks like two italian waiters bumming each other!)

    but then, hip hop IS pretty gay these days, all about clothes and jewellery and muscles…

  • chimp

    127


    hey, the Simpsons are yellow too

    I think yellow is the skin colour of cartoon characters that are there to represent ALL people, without all the stupid racist “where are the (your colour choice here) folk” etc comments

    I’m a big fan of the Muppets and Sesame Street because they are representative of all creeds and colours without looking like any specific one. a purple monster with a green nose can be anyone, do anything, sing opera, write graffiti, cook pasta - anything!

  • Sean

    128


    very cool. love the big pun and ODB ones.

  • president

    129


    That was stupid. Most of them were just the background art plus a LEGO character that looks like the artist.

  • Karjiana

    130


    I like the ones for THE GAME

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