20 Rap Albums That Need Marvel Variants

It all started in late 2014 when Rae Sremmurd showed up on the cover of a Captain America comic, and Birdman's infamous hand rub graced the front page of a new edition of "The Amazing Spider Man." From there, iconic brand Marvel began reinterpreting iconic hip hip cover artwork for comics, and they haven't looked back. In under a year and a half, they've racked up almost a hundred such covers, with the five most recent variant covers-- mimicking albums by Future, Masta Ace, Blackalicious, Consequence, and CZARFACE-- arriving just earlier this week. 

Marvel's done a great job of selecting artwork or albums that lend themselves to superhero-style mythologizing, such as MF DOOM and Madlib's Madvillainy, DMX's Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood, or Logic's Incredible True Story, but there are sill plenty of remaining albums that would make great choices. I'm unsure of how copyright factors into all of this, but with major label classics, obscure cult favorites, and recent mixtapes all getting the treatment, it seems pretty no-holds-barred. Here are twenty albums/tapes that for one reason or another we think would look great as repurposed Marvel covers. Let us know if there are any you've been craving that we neglected to include. 

Yes, the "Bloodsport"-inspired artwork is a little goofy for Bronson's body type, but throw any of Marvel's plus-sized terrors-- Beast, Thing, or Hulk-- in there, and this could be a cool look.

Aesop isn't as popular as most other rappers on this list, but tell me that the above album artwork isn't the best single-frame distillation of X-Men's whole "freaks are people too" philosophy.

While now may not be the best time to bring up Bambaataa, there's no denying that his debut is a stone-cold classic, and that its Parliament-inspired artwork isn't amazing. This one could work very well with Guardians of the Galaxy.

I had to include the full fold-out for this one, because what looks like a slick tail of an aircraft on the cover unfolds into something pretty unexpected. This one's always reminded me of a painting by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, who was fascinated with comics as an artform.

Often called the worst hip hop album cover of all time, this ridiculous image graces a 1998 album by virtually unknown Houston rapper Big Bear. It's one of Pen & Pixel's crowning achievements though, and while Marvel's shown some love to a Lil B album that apes the iconic brand's style, their variants have otherwise been disappointingly light on tributes to P&P.

One of the most iconic covers of all time, in my opinion, the kingpinned-out artwork for Clipse's sophomore album is screaming for a variant featuring some nefarious villains.

With artwork that's almost a comic in and of itself, Pilot Talk lends itself to an aerial scene, preferably one taking place over Spitta's native New Orleans.

A druggy, slightly sinister leers back at you from this cover, whose font was inspired by Quentin Tarantino's blaxploitation homage "Jackie Brown." Any femme fatale from the Marvel universe would work well for this one.

Given Deltron 3030's sci-fi content, it's pretty surprising that it hasn't yet been selected by Marvel for a redux. This is another one that would suit Guardians of the Galaxy, but its oddly-shaped buildings on the cover could potentially portray any futuristic metropolis. 

This one's a no-brainer. Give the most patriotic-looking mixtape cover of all-time a Captain America makeover, stat. 

A cover that tells its own story (namely the one also found on "'97 Bonnie & Clyde"), Eminem's commercial debut features the rapper at his most cartoonish, and would make for exactly the type of brooding scene Marvel tends to favor. 

A cover that comes with its own mythology, the Geto Boys shot the artwork for their third album in the hospital after Bushwick Bill was shot in the eye after an altercation with his girlfriend. Even for a Marvel cover, it's grisly, but perhaps it could depict Daredevil losing his sight as a child?

Any one of Kanye's iconic bear-featuring albums could make for a good Marvel variant, but Graduation's Takashi Murakami-designed cartoon is almost indisputably the best. Obviously, it's more Japanese-style artwork, but I'd love to see a Marvel artist adapt it to a more American style. 

Monch's solo debut definitely features one of the creepiest covers of all-time, with him emerging out of pitch-black water with flames in his hands, and it's almost painfully clear how well this would work for the Human Torch. 

Done up in a similar bare realism style to his former group's We Can't Be Stopped, the artwork for Scarface's debut tells a story of its own. Obviously, no one really fights over cocaine with guns in the Marvel universe, but you can easily imagine a superhero surrounded by gunmen and leering back at us just like Mr. Jordan's doing on this cover.

Instantly recognizable, right down to the perfectly tilted fitted cap, T.I.'s best cover would work for any superhero, and make any of them look even more badass than usual. 

Ground zero for horrorcore, Triple Six's official debut shows the group looking menacing in masks and hoodies. Of, for some reason, this one showed Marvel heroes wearing lower budget versions of their costumes, I think this would work well. 

Another picture that tells its own story-- but this time, with an added dose of fantasy-- Hell Can Wait's cover seems like a great choice for an issue centering around a hero's origin story. 

Sure, it's a pretty basic cover design-wise, but Flockaveli's as iconic for its artwork as it is for Waka and Lex Luger's signature sound. This is another othat could work for nearly any superhero. 

When No, My Name Is Jeffery dropped back in August, everyone was clamoring to say that Thug looked like a character from Street Fighter, an anime, or a comic book, but in terms of Marvel's style, I personally think SS2's artwork would work better. The hands of a villain control a hero's actions like a puppet-- that's a whole plot right there.