3 album covers in our archive
Beastie Boys is featured in Behind the Covers' archive with 3 album covers spanning the 1990s and 1980s. Released across Grand Royal / Capitol Records, Capitol Records and Def Jam Recordings labels, the artwork sits in the alternative, punk, jazz, hip-hop tradition. Each cover is documented in our archive with design notes covering photography, black and white, found photograph, pre existing artwork, hand drawn, graphic design. Below you'll find the full story behind each Beastie Boys cover — designers, photographers, label history, and the visual choices that defined the release.
Cover evolution
A man in dark sunglasses leans out a diner window clutching a phone, frozen in a 1964 photograph that Esquire never printed. Bruce Davidson shot it, forgot it, and thirty years later the Beastie Boys pulled it into daylight for an album about hip-hop, punk, jazz and funk crashing together.
The iconic panoramic street corner shot was captured by Jeremy Shatan but credited to Nathanial Hornblower, Adam Yauch's pseudonym. The fictional Paul's Boutique sign was hung over Lee's Sportswear for the shoot.
The Beastie Boys' debut features a deliberately generic black background with simple white text, designed by World B. Omes as an anti-cover statement that perfectly captured hip-hop's raw, no-frills aesthetic in 1986.
