2 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 2 album covers documented under the "afrofuturism" design theme, spanning the 1970s, 1990s. These covers sit within the hip-hop, funk, jazz tradition and feature work by OutKast, Miles Davis. Each entry below includes the cover artwork, the designers and photographers behind it, and a short story about the visual choices that defined the release.
D.L. Warfield's richly detailed illustration fuses the zodiac signs Aquarius and Gemini into a psychedelic cosmic landscape — signaling that OutKast was operating on a different creative plane than virtually any other hip-hop act of the era.
Mati Klarwein's Afro-psychedelic painting depicts two Black faces in profile surrounded by swirling organic forms — flowers, waves, fire, and cosmic phenomena — a visual match for the album that essentially invented jazz fusion.