2 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 2 album covers documented under the "protest" design theme, spanning the 1990s, 2010s. These covers sit within the hip-hop, rock, metal tradition and feature work by Kendrick Lamar, Rage Against the Machine. 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.
The confrontational cover shows a group of Black men from Compton celebrating on the White House lawn, with a dead judge at their feet — a multi-layered commentary on Black success, systemic racism, and the tension between triumph and self-destruction.
The cover uses one of the most searing photographs in 20th-century journalism — the self-immolation of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc in 1963 Saigon — making an unambiguous political statement that aligns the band with the most extreme form of political protest.