Lil Kim, DMX, Kanye West, and more artists have landed among the greatest hip-hop album covers of all time, as ranked by Billboard for a new list. The outlet revealed its picks for the top 50 works of cover art on Tuesday.
The top 10 kicks off with Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly at number 10, followed by 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Young Thug's Jeffery, 2 Live Crew's As Nasty As They Wanna Be, 2Pac's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die, Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, DMX's Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of my Blood, OutKast's Stankonia, and finally, at number one, Lil’ Kim's Hard Core.
Other notable selections include Future's DS2, Wu-Tang Clan's Enter The 36 Chambers, Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, Ol’ Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers, and Westside Gunn,'s Pray 4 Paris, among others.
Lil Kim's "Hard Core" Album Cover
For Hard Core, Lil Kim poses in lace lingerie on top of a polar bear rug. The title, written in black over a pink background, appears in bold to her left. In explaining why the project deserved the top spot, Billboard wrote: "With the surrounding roses and champagne offering a soft contrast to the polar bear’s bared teeth, Kim balances aggressive sexuality and reticent allure, grounding both in the power of the Divine Feminine. Kim simultaneously plays into the sex-stained gaze of the male-dominated hip-hop industry, while flipping that aesthetic on their head; she’s on top and the one in control. If challenging power is a core tenet of hip-hop, few album covers encapsulate that as stylishly as Hard Core."
Fans have been having mixed reactions to the list on social media. "Aquemini not being here is mad, and Graduation," one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter) when Kurrco shared the ranking. Another added: "Really? How the hell TPAB and DS2 are on the same f*coming list?? They're trippin bro. DS2 is PowerPoint sh*t." One more praised the choices, adding: "Jeffrey making top 10 makes perfect sense."
