Hip-Hop Album Cover Art Fans Hated Over the Last Few Years

Cover art is the opening statement to an album. Just like the music behind it, artwork has the potential to live on forever. Now, whether that’s in good or questionable favor among fans isn’t as certain. That’s no disrespect to the creators, but over the last few years, there’s been several pieces of hip-hop cover art that have leaned more towards the latter.

One glaring cover that wasn’t too successful in the court of public opinion points to Drake’s 2021 album, Certified Lover Boy. The cover features 12 different pregnant emojis, all of different colors and complexions. Fans on Twitter chimed in to suggest that the artwork was some variant of trash and others argued that he was trolling by releasing such a thing.

Kanye West experienced similar backlash when he dropped the lead image for Donda, released that same year. The cover was a simple black square, to which the public wasn’t too pleased to see. People got their jokes off, mostly poking fun at the idea of the cover having hidden messaging or imagery that plays into Ye’s brand as an artiste.

In 2022, Meek Mill hopped in to continue this trend of “underwhelming” album visuals. He restored rap’s prosperous mixtape era with his latest release, Flamerz 5, which features a black square with five fire emojis on top of it. Nothing more, nothing less. At this point, folks had enough and got on social media to press Meek on who was responsible for the work.

There’s a number of other album covers that have been shunned by the public on social media. From Kevo Muney‘s goat giving birth to DaBaby‘s ghoulish face, XXL packs them all together and briefly aggregated what fans have been saying about them over the last few years. Check out the full gallery below.

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GOOD Music/Def Jam Recordings

Kanye West’s Donda

Kanye West’s Donda cover art caught a lot of fans off guard. It’s just a black square, and no deeper meaning has been revealed behind it. For that reason, fans went on social media when the cover first arrived in 2021, and voiced how unmoved they were with Ye’s least remarkable album artwork to date.

Being sarcastic, Twitter user @bobbyteriyaki wrote, “Kanye is so smart every time u blink u can see the Donda album cover.” Someone by the social handle of @pyroghetti also had a few words for Yeezy’s choice of that image, questioning, “Do you think Kanye drew the Donda cover himself on Paint or googled black square.”

Additionally, it’s worth noting that prior to the album’s release in 2021, Kanye posted an alternate cover a year prior that had much more color and design. It never officially saw the light of day, unfortunately.

OVO/Republic Records

Drake’s Certified Lover Boy

Drake’s 2021 album, Certified Lover Boy, was one of the most anticipated albums over that year. The Canadian megastar was never one to likely disappoint when it comes to cover art. See Take Care, Nothing Was the Same and Views as examples. However, this project rolled around and proved otherwise. The artwork consists of 12 impregnated emojis and is designed by British artist Damien Hirst.

A consensus “What???” was asked by fans upon its release. Hovering over a post from Stereogum, @Hanarchy4theUK wrote, “Kanye and drake in a competition over who can make a more stupid and obnoxious album and its a tight race folks,” also referring to Ye’s Donda.

@ovoxomandy didn’t let the disappointment go either, typing, “Drake can’t be trusted with album covers since clb.” The cover also sparked what felt like an infinite string of memes, everyone from Lil Nas X to The Maury Show Twitter account used the cover to create their own visuals. 

Victor Victor/Republic Records

Pop Smoke’s Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon

Pop Smoke’s posthumous album, Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon, was one of the biggest rap projects of 2020. The music was top tier, however, the cover art left a bad taste in the mouths of dedicated fans. Virgil Albloh (R.I.P.) designed the first iteration of the cover, which was a simple picture of Pop, barbed wire and diamonds. The visual was quickly shot down by people across the country, to the point where plenty of fans posted alternatives and Pop’s team decided to change it.

They landed on a black square with a chrome rose, which didn’t move the needle much either. In response to tweet from the popular fan page @MeetTheWoo2, @Hazeleyed_jay typed, “W all the talents covers I seen ya went this basic ass shit.” And under that same post, @KMTGVNG blamed Pop’s mentor 50 Cent for choosing wrong in the court of public opinion again. They wrote, “So after 50 flooded everyone’s TL with a million covers, he ends up choosing a rose!! A rose fam smh.” Those mentions barely scratch the surface of how many comments there really was.

eOne/Prolific

The Game’s Born 2 Rap

The Game always finds new ways to create moments in the rap game. One of his most notable examples came when he posted the cover art for his 2019 album, Born 2 Rap. On the cover, Game is in the studio with nine pregnant women. Why? Who knows.

Fans weren’t feeling the randomness either. @theFLYinHAWiian expressed a popular sentiment, writing, “The Game’s ‘Born 2 Rap’ album cover is horrendous.The music is FIRE.” Another fan by the name of @laughNsext didn’t rock with it either, typing. “That Born 2 Rap album cover makes me wanna puke.”

The Game went on to explain in his cover reveal on Instagram that there was a deeper meaning behind it. But that’s about all he wrote on that one. 

Bad Boy Records/Interscope Records

Machine Gun Kelly’s Mainstream Sellout

Machine Gun Kelly released his most recent album, Mainstream Sellout, in early 2022. It was received pretty well amongst the people, which was different than how the cover art landed. Fans got on social media to complain about the artwork looking like a Nickelodeon movie poster from the 2000s.

On the cover, MGK is playing his guitar as pink tomatoes appear to be thrown at him. @gracieabramsbby got on the net and wrote, “I still refuse to believe mgk used that cover for mainstream sellout” months after it dropped.

@Bixob31 additionally couldn’t believe that more people weren’t discussing it further, stamping, “How has no one ever talked about how absolutely shit that mgk’s ‘mainstream sellout’ album cover is.”

It doesn’t help that with this cover, MGK was accused of swiping the artwork from indie pop band Japanese Breakfast, though both artists joked about the comparison. 

Atlantic Records

Kevo Muney’s Baby G.O.A.T.

Kevo Muney has steadily gotten more popular since he entered the game in 2018. His music speaks for itself, but a lot of people caught onto the blossoming act when he released his Baby G.O.A.T. project back in 2019. On the cover of the effort, a goat is giving birth to Kevo, with the assistance of another goat who appears to be working as the doctor.

Twitter user @1OVEKC held nothing back when it came to opinion on the cover. He went on Twitter and wrote, “It absolutely has to be this monstrosity of an album cover like what even the fuck made them think this was a good idea.” Elsewhere and years later, someone who goes by the handle @vedabestt was still tripping, randomly tweeting, “I still can’t believe kevo muney for that cover he did of a goat pushing him out.”

Well, if his goal was to create one of the most memorable hip-hop covers of all time, he succeeded.

Interscope/South Coast Music Group

DaBaby’s Baby on Baby 2

DaBaby, a once impenetrable rising rap star, has been trying to get back in everyone’s good graces, but the cover art for his last solo album, Baby on Baby 2, didn’t necessarily help with that. The cover of the 2022 release finds Baby as some type of green goblin mixed into a human. He’s pictured sitting contemplatively on a chair with his label chain hanging down.

@stackupk couldn’t believe what they were witnessing, hopping on Twitter and voicing their disappointment. “I ain’t going to lie I saw DaBaby ‘baby on baby 2’ and I was interested because Baby on Baby was when the nigga was good. But I saw the album cover and said wtf is that and decided I don’t need to waste my time.”

Someone else who goes by the name of @BALL__AllDayy questioned the relevance of the imagery, asking, “What about dababy album cover says ‘baby on baby 2’ ??.” The mystery remains unsolved. 

Maybach Music Group/Dream Chasers

Meek Mill’s Flamerz 5

Meek Mill deserves a shout-out for bringing the mixtape vibes back to the rap game. From listening through Flamerz 5, it’s clear that he put his foot in it. But in terms of effort, the cover, which is just five fire emojis on a black backdrop, is a different story in the eyes of fans.

One Twitter user by the name of @LAxFLAME said, “Meek Mill with probably the worst album cover of the year.” Another by the name of @LobCityBlake wrote, “Whoever said don’t judge a book by its cover clearly didn’t know about Meek Mill like what the fuck is this.” Out of the many, many comments of fans being disatisfied with the cover, someone who goes by @_kingmarccc questioned the entire occurrence, writing, “That flamers 5 cover the best meek could come up with??”

Meek got flamed for the artwork, no pun intended. 

YSL/300 Entertainment

Gunna’s Drip or Drown 2

Gunna’s Drip or Drown 2 cover is on the fence when it comes to reception. Some deem the 2019 artwork as hard, and others squint their eyes at the imagery of Gunna floating underwater, holding an umbrella with the spirit of Fonzworth Bentley.

Twitter user @_TREYLAWRENCE got online and wrote that it was the “top 10 worst album cover ever.” Whereas user @Kevs_OnTheBus chimed in to say that the cover is “still atrocious.” There’s plenty more where that comes from, but searching through the backlash also reveals a few salutes for the fact that it wasn’t photoshopped and Wunna was wearing $20,000 worth of decor while flexing in this regard. 

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Source: Here’s Hip-Hop Album Cover Art Fans Hated Over the Last Few Years