2 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 2 album covers documented under the "hip hop culture" design theme, spanning the 1990s, 2000s. These covers sit within the hip-hop, r&b tradition and feature work by A Tribe Called Quest, OutKast. 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.
A Tribe Called Quest transformed their album cover into an interactive experience by hiding over 70 hip-hop luminaries in a burgundy crowd illustration that fans are still discovering today.
OutKast's double album featured a revolutionary split cover design that literally divided the CD booklet in half, with Big Boi's gritty street aesthetic on one side and Andre 3000's colorful, eccentric fashion-forward imagery on the other, perfectly visualizing their artistic divergence.