Great albums with awful album covers?

[Almostlity]

[Satire]

None of these albums covers past Xray's post on page 2 have been awful tbh.

I also like Stillmatic's cover. It looks kinda weird online because of how it's drawn but on the actual CD it looks pretty good. Relapse's looks good too.

[OMEGA]

Relapse cover is amazing.

But yeah, Stillmatic cover is awful. In fact, every Nas cover except for God's Son is pretty lame. 2001 by Dre is horrible too.

Illmatic is a terrible cover? Um no.

The concept is excellent, but the picture quality, understandably, is poor. Also the Nas logo looked really shitty back then. I'd love to see this cover but with a pristine condition photo and the current Nas logo.

[Unscarred]

Never heard of this album, but i just had to post this

[Raids-God]

whos gonna have the balls to put Thug.com ?

[classthe_king]

Simply put, the cover of Stillmatic showcases the downfall of man. It references Nas' artistic downfall, personal trepidations, and the injury done to man in the greater world. It's 9/11, hyper urbanization, crime, racism, poverty, drugs, death, and the rap game Nas plans to destroy and rebuild, "hate to cease y'all plan - it's the rap repo man."

In an interview around the time of Stillmatic's release, Nas reported that for the cover shot he wore just about every piece of jewelry he owned. We see his QB medallion, a host of platinum necklaces, some diamond rings, and an iced out watch. This is the folly of Nas (his Escobar flossing days), the excess of the rap game (The Big Willy / Jiggy / Bling era) and, more metaphorically, the indulgence of a capitalistic American society (think the inflated economy of the late 90s). The garish orange jump suit Nas wears is intentionally loud. The visually offensive display is a purposeful act of irony.

Behind all that platinum, the dark, lightning scorched skies above the NYC skyline represent the apocalyptic world prophesized on Nastradamus. The omission of the twin towers in the skyline is a direct reference to 9/11. The water is very important as well, but I'll get to that in a minute . . .

One of the most interesting aspects of this scene is the pigeon, the ghetto dove, the only presence on the same perspective level with Nas. This is where it gets biblical. (The link to the Judeo-Christian religion is established with the silver cross that hangs conspicuously below the rest of Nas' jewelry.) Taken as a whole, the entire album cover is an allusion to the Old Testament story of Noah. Y'all know it, but, if you don't, here's a recap. In ancient times, mankind had become very wicked. Murder and rape abounded, immorality everywhere. In response, God punished the wicked of the world with a flood. The Stillmatic cover is that moment before the flood. Nas is at once Noah and God, poised for what's ahead and ready to see it through. Stillmatic is Nas' ark, and just as Noah brought himself, his family, and two of every animal to repopulate the world, the 2001 LP, with his little girl even credited as executive producer, was Nas' vessel to carry his own musical family (Large Professor, DJ Premier, LES, The Trackmasters, AZ, QB associates) on to repopulate the rap world after it had been destroyed.

Back to the pigeon. In the Bible, Noah sent out a dove everyday during the flood. The dove would continually return with an empty beak, representing that there was no land and that God's punishment was still in effect. The pigeon stands as Nas' dove ready to be sent out pending the coming storm. Notice those rain clouds overhead are holding a lot of water, the lightning carries the promise of a storm.

You sound like my english teacher

[dead prez]

Ah yes, the meaning behind Nas's cover, if we take a look back to....

still looks like a homo

You're a faggot though so who cares what you think.

Anyways I loved illlmatoc's classic cover and thought untitled was also great, didn't really like gods son tbh, he looked like a wannabe Pac with that tattoo.