lil yachty it gets cold in minnesota

"Minnesota" lyrics

• Lil Yachty Lyrics

• Download Shazam
• Radio Spins

Minnesota (feat. Quavo, Skippa Da Flippa & Young Thug)

Hip-hop/rap, music video.

Upcoming Concerts for Lil Yachty

• Jul 27 Jul 27, 2024 Audi Field Washington View Concert
• Aug 11 Aug 11, 2024 The National Bowl Milton Keynes View Concert
• Aug 11 Aug 11, 2024 National Bowl Milton Keynes View Concert
• Sep 05 Sep 05, 2024 Rupp Arena Lexington View Concert

Similar Songs

Shazam footer.

• Help for Apple Devices
• Help for Android Devices
• ShazamKit for Developers
• Privacy Policy
• Manage Your Data

Featured In

Top songs by lil yachty.

Spotify is currently not available in your country.

Follow us online to find out when we launch., spotify gives you instant access to millions of songs – from old favorites to the latest hits. just hit play to stream anything you like..

Listen everywhere

Spotify works on your computer, mobile, tablet and TV.

Unlimited, ad-free music

No ads. No interruptions. Just music.

Download music & listen offline

Keep playing, even when you don't have a connection.

Premium sounds better

Get ready for incredible sound quality.

Popular Song Lyrics

Billboard Hot 100

Upcoming Lyrics

Recently Added

Top Lyrics of 2011

Top Lyrics of 2010

Top Lyrics of 2009

More »

Popular Artists

Artists A-Z

Popular Albums

Upcoming Albums

Hip Hop/Rap

All Genres »

Daily Roundup

Album Reviews

Song Reviews

Sign In Register

Submit Lyrics

• Song Lyrics
• Artists - #
• feat. Lil Yachty Lyrics
• Summer Songs Album
• Minnesota Lyrics

feat. Lil Yachty - Minnesota Lyrics

Artist: feat. Lil Yachty

Album: Summer Songs

You need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat You need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat Cause it get cold like Minnesota, cold like Minnesota Cold like Minnesota, cold like Minnesota Need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat You need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat Cause it get cold like Minnesota, cold like Minnesota Cold like Minnesota, it get cold like Minnesota Need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat You need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat Cause it get cold like Minnesota, ridin' 'round on boulders Money sittin' up, it sits way above your shoulders I was eatin' pork and rinds with a bitch from New York Times I don't eat no pork and rinds but that bitch was mighty fine I got gold all on my necklace, tatted up my arms Now my mama think I'm reckless, got guns under my mattress I was juggin since a youngin', free my older cousin Reesey He from Hamilton not D.C, I rock N.Bs like I'm Gleetchie Flip phone banging off the walls, Gucci on my drawers Why the fuck you in these streets if your scared of them four walls? I was strokin' on your sister, she was callin' me her mister She suck dick for a picture, it's Lil Yachty nice to meet you I was juggin' off them stacks, countin' up them racks Almost had a lifetime sentence, but I beat it, shout out to Pat! Pat, that's my lawyer, he got me off them chargers 8 stacks for that boy, he took care of the boy Cold like Minnesota, cold like Minnesota Cold like Minnesota, it get cold like Minnesota Need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat You need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat Cause it get cold like Minnesota, cold like Minnesota Cold like Minnesota, it get cold like Minnesota You need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat When they said Lil Yachty hot I'm like that's him or me Wrists like Minnesota, trapping Coca-Cola Catching planes Anquan Bolden She got the hot box, know that's its stolen Large sizes, all type of narcotics Got a bankroll in that big body I love my Motorola, I love my Motorola I love my Motorola, I love my Motorola Fuck 12 they can't pull me over Smoking that gas and that odor Cooking up then flip it over You must've forgot it, we bout it like soldiers Its cold but I got my shirt off Trap niggas can't fall off Big sack of molly, golf ball Big sack of molly, golf ball I trap in Minnesota like a viking Flood out the Skydweller it got good lighting We made the dab and all of y'all biting Two thick white bitches, both of 'em dikes I make a 50 before his acre I was in the streets but I ain't have no cable Me and Lil Yachty touch down at the safe house Skippa Da Flippa, I will bring the rice out Cold like Minnesota, racks on foul I told ya I iced out my Rollie, then did the same damn thing for my brodies All a nigga trap spot beaming like a post I could put the heat inside the kitchen like a baller I could feel your bitch head up like a lawyer They don't know no sign posts Big machine, big machine I'm cooking bean on jelly beans No need to smell it, all is clean That money talking, Charlie Sheen I'm riding Ubers with the toolie I got more diamonds than your jeweler I make her come back like I'm Yu-Gi If you ain't know it now you knew it I aim at her head like a sniper rifle She can't be my bitch if she diking diking I bought her a ring but no wifey wifey She slurp on that dick and I like it, like it No candy she Mike and Ike it No Nike, she know I do it I eat that bitch like a hot pocket No Nike, she know I do it Cold like Minnesota, cold like Minnesota Cold like Minnesota, it get cold like Minnesota Need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat You need to stay up out them streets if you can't take the heat Cause it get cold like Minnesota, cold like Minnesota Cold like Minnesota, it get cold like Minnesota

Add Comment

Summer songs tracklist.

Get the embed code

feat. Lil Yachty Lyrics provided by SongLyrics.com

Note: When you embed the widget in your site, it will match your site's styles (CSS). This is just a preview!

Preview the embedded widget

In the Know

Popular feat. Lil Yachty Lyrics

Cannot annotate a non-flat selection. Make sure your selection starts and ends within the same node.

An annotation cannot contain another annotation.

• ABBREVIATIONS
• BIOGRAPHIES
• CALCULATORS
• CONVERSIONS
• DEFINITIONS

      PDF       Playlist    

Quavo , Lil Yachty , Skippa da Flippa , Young Thug

Follow 23 fans

nig more »

 The easy, fast & fun way to learn how to sing: 30DaySinger.com

 watch: new singing lesson videos can make anyone a great singer.

Sheet Music       PDF     Playlist  

Written by: Miles Parks Mccollum, Jeffrey Williams, Quavious Marshall

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave, CREATE MUSIC

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

Discuss the Minnesota Lyrics with the community:

Report Comment

We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe. If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.

You need to be logged in to favorite .

Create a new account.

Your name: * Required

Your email address: * Required

Pick a user name: * Required

Username: * Required

Password: * Required

Forgot your password?    Retrieve it

Use the citation below to add these lyrics to your bibliography:

Style: MLA Chicago APA

"Minnesota Lyrics." Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Jul 2024. < https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/33063924/Young+Thug/Minnesota >.

Missing lyrics by Young Thug?

Know any other songs by young thug don't keep it to yourself, image credit, the web's largest resource for, music, songs & lyrics, a member of the stands4 network, watch the song video, more tracks from the album.

• #1 Just Keep Swimming (Intro)
• #2 Wanna Be Us
• #3 Minnesota
• #4 Not My Bro
• #6 Good Day
• #7 Up Next 2
• #9 One Night
• #9 One Night [Extended]
• #10 Out Late
• #11 Fucked Over
• #12 I’m Sorry
• #13 We Did It
• #13 We Did It [Positive Song]

Browse Lyrics.com

Our awesome collection of, promoted songs.

Get promoted 

Are you a music master?

How many albums does ariana grande have, free, no signup required :, add to chrome, add to firefox, don't miss young thug's, upcoming events.

On Radio Right Now

Powered by OnRad.io

Think you know music? Test your MusicIQ here!

• Artists add

Minnesota (Remix)

Minnesota (remix) lyrics.

25 Best Songs About Minnesota: Land Of 10,000 Lakes

Minnesota offers some of the most beautiful views and is known as the Land Of 10,000 Lakes, and several tracks have been written about its landscape through the years. Continue reading as we tell you the 25 best songs about Minnesota, the Land Of 10,000 Lakes below! 

1. I’m From Minnesota – Alex Frecon 

First up on our list is Alex Frecon with his song I’m From Minnesota , which came out in 2018 on his album of the same name. In this track, he is talking about all of the good qualities that this state has and wonders why Minnesota isn’t more popular. The lyrics go into the beauty of the state as well as the charming and welcoming people who live in it. 

2. Walls of Red Wing – Bob Dylan 

In 1991, Bob Dylan released Walls Of Red Wing , which is a song that’s all about the prison that is in the city. He grew up in Minnesota and was born in Duluth, so he knows all about the state and the Red Wing Prison, which houses both juvenile boys and men. This folk track goes into detail about the horrible conditions within the correctional facility and sings about the juveniles that are housed there. 

3. Uptown – Prince 

Next up is Prince with Uptown , which comes from his 1980 album Dirty Mind . This song is all about Minneapolis, Minnesota, and places such as the Uptown Theater . He talks about the commercial industry within the city, and he goes into detail about the places he fondly remembers from his childhood and how freeing the city was.

Out of all of the tracks about Minnesota, this might be one of the most well-known. When the song was released, it landed on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles and Hot Dance Club Singles at number five. 

4. Minnesota – Lil Yachty Feat. Quavo And Skippa Da Flippa

Lil Yachty released a mixtape in 2016 called Summer Songs 2, and Minnesota was one of the tracks released on it. The music video was shot within the state, and the song is very upbeat with trap music and autotune being the main components behind his vocals.

He has a very unique style and sound and that helped this track hit three on the Billboard Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. He talks about his personality being cold just like Minnesota, so there are a lot of references to the state in this song. 

5. Duluth – Trampled By Turtles 

Duluth is next on our list, which was released by the group Trampled By Turtles. It’s all about the memories he had with a girlfriend in this city in Minnesota . The memories mostly occurred during the winter when it was really cold. He’s looking back on this relationship and knows that he can’t ever make it work, but he’s holding onto all of those fond memories he has with the woman anyway. 

6. The Minnesota Song – Dan Adler

Next is The Minnesota Song by Dan Adler, which was released in 2010. This is a very folk-like track that has a harmonica and an acoustic guitar as the main instruments. You can hear his smooth vocals and the lyrics talk about the simple life in the state. He talks about how the beauty of Minnesota is an escape from all of the business that is city life, and how it’s so peaceful up there. People who live or have lived in the state love this song because it’s a lovely tribute to the serenity found throughout Minnesota.

7. Skyway – The Replacements 

The Replacements are on the list with Skyway , which came out in 1987 on the album Pleased To Meet Me. This song is all about a guy who is riding the subway and has a meager existence, and while he’s down on his luck, he looks up and sees the girl he’s enamored with on the skyway. He compares her on the skyway to his situation on the subway and notes the contrasts between the two.

There is a melody in this track that’s infectious, and it has a catchy chorus that’s going to leave you wondering what happened between the two of them and if he manages to find a happy ending with this girl or if he continues on his path of loneliness and nothingness. 

8. Say Shh – Atmosphere 

In 2003, Atmosphere released the album Seven’s Travels , and Say Shh is one of the songs from this album. They are from Minneapolis and in the hip hop genre, so this track is all about them rapping about their life and childhood in the city and Minnesota in general. He raps about some of the bad, such as there being a lot of mosquitoes, but also talks about the good, such as how beautiful the state is too. 

9. Minnesota Girl – Green Day

Green Day makes the list with Minnesota Girl , which is a song that was released on their website and not on an album. It’s all about how Billy Joe Armstrong had a thing for a girl in the state and they were dating. The thought is that it’s about Adrienne, his wife because she is from the city of Minneapolis. It’s an endearing track about spending time with this girl in Minnesota, even though they are getting eaten up by mosquitoes all day. 

10. Rock And Roll Is Alive! (And It Lives In Minneapolis) – Prince

Prince is on our list again with Rock And Roll Is Alive! (And It Lives In Minneapolis) , which came out in 1995 on the album Gold. The song features his amazing vocals as well as a lot of fun guitar riffs, and it’s an upbeat energetic track you can’t only listen to one time. You get the feeling that he loved Minnesota when you hear this song and how much he appreciates his state and everything it has to offer. 

11. Big River – Johnny Cash 

Johnny Cash is on the list with Big River from his 1985 album The Highwaymen. In this song, he talks about stopping in Minnesota as he travels towards the Mississippi River and meets a woman while on his trip. However, he doesn’t stick around with her because he feels that nature is calling him elsewhere. This track peaked on the Billboard Country Song chart at number four. 

12. Good Old Days – Macklemore Feat. Kesha

In 2017, Macklemore released the single Good Old Days from his album Gemini , and this song features Kesha in what’s one of the best duet performances about Minnesota out there. In this tune, he talks about his time in the state and how those memories from his teenage years are thought of as the good old days just hanging with friends and having fun. It peaked at three on the Adult Top 40 chart, 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart . 

13. The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota – “Weird Al ” Yankovic

Next is “Weird Al” Yankovic with his parody song The Biggest Ball Of Twine In Minnesota , which was released on UHF in 1989. The track is pretty funny, and it’s about a family that is traveling for three days to go see the biggest twine ball, which at the time there was one in Minnesota that was in the Guinness Book of World Records. 

14. Escapade – Janet Jackson 

In 1989, Janet Jackson released the album Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 , and one of the tracks on this album was Escapade. This is a catchy dance song that infuses a lot of pop, and it’s a very groovy and infectious track that made it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Dance Club Songs charts. She gives shout-outs to Minneapolis throughout the track, and the album was recorded in Minnesota too. 

15. North Country – Rocket Club

Next is North Country by Rocket Club , which was released in 2011, and it went to number 52 on the Hot Country Songs Billboard chart. They came up with the term “North Country” to describe their style of country music, which is focused more on the guitar instead of being Southern-style country. Since they came up with the term, they released a track that made it into an anthem for the North. 

16. Girl From The North Country – Bob Dylan And Johnny Cash 

Up next is Bob Dylan with Girl From The North Country featuring Johnny Cash. This song was recorded originally in 1963, but the duet version with Cash was released in 1969. It’s all about a woman that they both are trying to get close to and want, although it’s never said who this woman is in real life. When you hear this track and the two of them together, it’s just amazing because both men have unique voices that blend country and rock together to form one of the best songs of the decade. 

17. Lake of Fire – Nirvana 

While the Meat Puppets initially was behind Lake Of Fire, when Nirvana covered this song , it took this folk tune to new heights. In the lyrics, you hear about a lady from Duluth, Minnesota, and it mentions how she died too soon because of a dog with a rabid tooth that bit her. With Nirvana’s amazing cover of this track, it landed on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and peaked at 22. 

18. Truth Hurts – Lizzo 

Lizzo is from Minnesota, and in the 2017 song Truth Hurts from the album Cuz I Love You, she mentions the Minnesota Vikings more than once. This track went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and Mainstream Top 40, among others. While the song isn’t just about Minnesota, it’s a great track that gives a shout-out to her hometown NFL team and a couple of other notable things the state has to offer. 

19. Laydown – Prince 

In 2010, Prince released the album 20Ten , and one of the hit songs on the album was Laydown , which is only one of a few tracks that he made where he specifically mentions Minnesota. He talks about being from the heart of the state in the song and calls himself Purple Yoda and how he’s bringing a new sound to town. 

20. On A Bus To St. Cloud – Trisha Yearwood 

Next is country star Trisha Yearwood with On A Bus To St. Cloud , which came out in 1995. She sings about being on a bus when it’s snowing outside and believing she saw someone she used to know standing there. This is a very whimsical track about traveling the United States and making a stop in this city in Minnesota . While it received a fair amount of play, it only went to 59 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. 

21. minnesota is a place that exists – glaive 

The singer glaive is on the list with minnesota is a place that exists , which was released in 2022 on an album of the same name. It’s one of the more bizarre songs on our list since it’s about a guy who is having issues with his girl because he thinks that she hasn’t been emotionally available, and he thinks about killing her. While he doesn’t kill her, he does leave her and tells his own family that she was the one who left him and ran off to Minnesota. 

22. Cold Like Minnesota – Yung Scrappy

Next is Yung Scrappy with Cold Like Minnesota , which came out in 2016 on the album of the same name. This song goes into detail about the harsh reality of life on the streets in the state as well as the bitter cold winter weather and snow. He talks about how much of a struggle life is living in Minnesota, especially trying to break into the music business, and how dangerous these types of environments can be when you’re at a disadvantage already in life.  

23. My Minnesota State Fair – Ann Reed

In 2008, Ann Reed released Songs For Minnesota , and one of the tracks on this album is My Minnesota State Fair. This song is all about the state fair and the things to see and do at the fair, including the food and games. She has a love for the state, and you can hear the pride in her voice as she sings about Minnesota. 

24. Christmas Card From a Hooker In Minneapolis – Tom Waits 

Next is Tom Waits with Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis , which is from his 1978 album Blue Valentine. This song is all about a prostitute who is sending a Christmas card to a man named Charlie, and in the card, she says she’s clean and sober now and pregnant.

She talks about how her new man will raise the baby and thinks of all the things she’d do with the money she spent on drugs. However, the end of the track reveals she’s not pregnant, doesn’t have a man, and is actually in prison with a parole hearing on Valentine’s Day. It’s a weird song but a funny one that mentions Minnesota. 

25. Drown Soda – Hole 

In 1995, Hole released Drown Soda on the album Tank Girl , and Minnesota is mentioned in this song a couple of times. She mentions how she would like to bomb the state as she’s drinking drown soda while she’s lying in bed.

Recommended Next:

Best songs about North Dakota

Best songs about South Dakota

Best songs about Montana

From the time she was little, Florence loved listening to music and quickly learned how music can make you happy and feel fulfilled. One of her favorite memories is being in the garage with her dad working on classic cars with the local rock station blaring in the background. Ever since Florence was 3, she loved grunge music and spent hours listening to bands such as Alice in Chains, Mad Season, Soul Asylum, and Soundgarden.

She also enjoys classic rock, modern rock, nu metal, alternative rock, and old 90’s R&B. Her love of music grew as she got older, and used music to help her get through tough times in her life. More often than not, you’ll see Florence with earbuds in while she’s writing, cooking, cleaning, and doing other tasks. She also loves to debate music with her friends such as which lead singer is the best vocalist, the most iconic guitar solos in music, and what songs are really the best of the decade.

Recommended:

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

This is a professional review website. Any purchase that a visitor makes for a product mentioned or directed to by Music Grotto, may result in us receiving a commission. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Contact Information:

4110 SE Hawthorne Blvd. #236

Portland, Oregon 97214-5246

Phone: +1 (971) 240-7126

[email protected]

© 2024 Music Grotto

• Latest added
• Request a video
• Submit chord / tab
• Submit tutorial
• Submit riff lesson
• Chord dictionary
• Tutorials & lessons
• Learn to play guitar
• Guitar scales
• Riff lessons
• Billion chords
• Why premium account?
• Video lessons
• Backing tracks
• Guitar chord editor
• Chords explorer
• Guitar chord library
• Personal chord library
• Free bonus gifts
•  Login
• Sign up Premium
• Sign up Free

by   HEBEALMEIDA

there isn't a video lesson for this song

Written by Ramses Ful/Quavious Marshall/Miles McCollum/Kevin Purnell/Jeffrey Williams

E-Chords uses cookies for functional and analytical purposes. Please read our Privacy Policy for more information.

Girl at the Rock Shows

• Singles To Check Out

Cause It Get Cold Like Minnesota

I entered a whole new world on Thursday night when I walked into The Fillmore for the Lil Yachty show. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done rap shows before but something just felt a bit different about Thursday night. The atmosphere was a bit more electric, the audience members were a bit younger, and I felt a bit more out of place than most nights. I don’t quite know why. I’m comfortable in large crowds (obviously) and attend many shows where I feel my age a bit more than normal but something was just a bit different on Thursday night.

Things moved fast when it came to the opening acts. First up was Stoop Lauren. This Atlanta-based rapper hit the stage and the microphone hard giving the sold-out audience everything he possibly could during his quick set. I found it interesting that, between songs, trying to get the audience to cheer was a bit like pulling teeth yet, when performing, the audience quickly turned into a sweaty mess of a pit. Stylistically, Stoop Lauren’s music was as intense as his performance. There was something almost threatening about some of his lines but, at the same time, he presented each of these lines with an undeniable sense of heart making him an easy act to get captivated by.

Following Stoop Lauren was the collective Concrete Family. This set started with just one rapper but, by the end, there were a couple of them on stage. I didn’t catch all of their names but I can say that each of the people on stage brought a different vibe to this second set creating a dynamic, albeit confusing, set. I only say that it was confusing because I had no clue who was who which has me a bit frustrated this morning as I try to write this review, but, had I just been there to experience the night, not cover it, I would have loved the variety I was getting within just one set.

The final opener for Thursday night was Nick Hakim. His set hit a little differently than the previous two sets but it hit me the hardest. Instead of focusing on an intense rap vibe, Nick and his two-member band focused on the more tender side of things with an emphasis on a more soul and jazz influence. I liked his set a lot because it stood out but it also felt a bit more up my alley with jazzy beats and just a bit more of an approachable sensibility. That being said, rap is not my bread and butter (surprise, I know) so this just felt a bit more accessible to me when compared to the previous two acts.

I loved that each of the openers had something different to offer. Whether that difference came from their sound or their performance, I just loved that, even though the headliner hadn’t even taken the stage yet, I felt as if I had more than gotten a show for the night. I got the feeling that the audience was feeling the same way but, at the same time, they were clearly ready and anxious for headliner Lil Yachty to take the stage.

Miles Parks McCollum is Lil Yachty and he has created such a buzz and such an empire that I would honestly be a bit surprised if you don’t know his name. At only twenty-six years old, this Georgia born kid has created waves in the scene but, prior to Thursday night, I honestly knew very little about this man. I knew his song “Minnesota” because, well, I live in Minnesota but, beyond that, I had no idea what to expect. What I do know is that what he gave me and the way he and his live band (that’s right, he had a LIVE band behind him) kicked off the set had me sold. Lil Yachty is more than just a rapper. Don’t get me wrong, there were segments of his show where it was just him rapping along to tracks which definitely was not my favorite part of the performance, but there were other moments where he had a bit more composition to his songs and I was left completely captivated by not only the talent in his voice, but the talent of his fabulous band.

If you can’t tell, it was the band that had me super hooked on Lil Yachty’s performance on Thursday night. Not only did it catch me off guard as I was expecting him to just be singing along to tracks, but the members of his band are truly stellar. Yachty took the time to introduce each of the musicians behind him which spoke volumes to me. He didn’t have to do that and there are so many other acts out there that wouldn’t have given the time to do that but he did and I loved the respect that showed. Unfortunately, I was doing photos at the time of the introductions so I didn’t catch any names or the name of the group that he referenced when introducing the band. My apologies to all of the players up there but, seriously, that band was the MVP of the show.

Although I was captivated by the band, everyone else in the sold-out audience was clearly captivated by Yachty. When he said jump, that entire audience was jumping to the point where I swear I could feel the floor move. When he said mosh, the entire audience would mosh turning into a swirling mess of limbs and sweat. It was a pretty remarkable thing to witness from the outskirts of the audience. As mentioned, I wasn’t a huge fan of the songs that were just Yachty and some tracks but I was the minority in that. Those were the moments where the audience would freak out just a little bit more and really add an exciting ambiance to the room.

My goal this year with concerts was so step out of my comfort zone. Seeing Lil Yachty on Thursday night at The Fillmore definitely did that but I loved how, even thought I felt like I was in a whole new world, there were moments that I felt comfortable and the night felt no different than any other show.

Stoop Lauren

Concrete Family

Venue:  Fillmore

Smell-O-Meter: Weed- Straight up Weed

Average Age of the Crowd: 18

Crowd Surfers- 7 Counted But There Were Probably More

Stage Divers- 0

Mosh-ability- 8 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On Me While Walking Around- 0

Broken Bones- None Noticed

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Bodies/ Clothing/ Drinks

Fights- None Witnessed

Passed Out Kids- 9

Idiots Taken Out By Security – 2

How Irritated I Was With The Audience – 3 out of 10

How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember)-

Stoop Lauren– 0

Concrete Family– 0

Nick Hakim – 0

Lil Yachty – 0

Celebrity Sightings – None

Overall Score –7.8 out of 10

Show on Deck — Del Water Gap / Kristiane

Shameless Self Promotion:

Join My Patreon Here!

Buy Me a Coffee  (Seriously!)

Check out my playlist with this track and a bunch of other amazing tracks HERE!

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation, make a yearly donation.

Choose an amount

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Share this:

I love music. Everything music. A concert is an experience that is hard to put into words, but I'm sure as hell going to try!

concert review , Concert Reviews

#girlattherockshows , 2023 , concert , concert blog , concert critic , concert review , Concert Reviews , Concrete Family , Fillmore , girl at the rock shows , girlattherockshows , hip-hop , Lil Yachty , live concert , minneapolis , minnesota , music , music blog , music critic , music journalism , Nick Hakim , rap , Stoop Lauren , twin cities

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Follow blog via email.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

• View girlattherockshows’s profile on Facebook
• View girlatrockshows’s profile on Twitter

Powered by WordPress.com .

Discover more from Girl at the Rock Shows

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

• Share onFacebook
• Share onTwitter
• Share onInstagram
• Share onYouTube
• Share onSubscribe to our Newsletters

Get The Magazine

The best in culture from a cultural icon. Subscribe now for more from the authority on music, entertainment, politics and pop culture.

Newsletter Signup

The 100 Best Album Covers of All Time

From biggie to beyoncé to bad bunny, from nirvana to nas to neil young, this is the album art that changed the way we see music.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHEW COOLEY

The album is the best invention of the past century, hands down — but the music isn’t the whole story. The album cover has been a cultural obsession as long as albums have. Ever since 12-inch vinyl records took off in the 1950s, packaged in cardboard sleeves, musicians have been fascinated by the art that goes on those covers, and so have fans. When the Beatles revolutionized the game with the cover of Sgt. Pepper , in 1967, it became a way to make a visual statement about where the music comes from and why it matters. But the art of the album cover just keeps evolving.

So this is our massive celebration of that art: the 100 best album covers ever, from Biggie to Beyoncé to Bad Bunny, from Nirvana to Nas to Neil Young, from SZA to Sabbath to the Sex Pistols. We’ve got rap, country, jazz, prog, metal, reggae, flamenco, funk, goth, hippie psychedelia, hardcore punk. But all these albums have a unique look to go with the sound. The most unforgettable covers become part of the music — how many Pink Floyd fans have gotten their minds blown staring at the prism on the cover of Dark Side of the Moon , after using it to roll up their smoking materials?

What makes an album cover a classic? Sometimes it’s a portrait of the artist — think of the Beatles crossing the street, or Carole King in Laurel Canyon with her cat. Others go for iconic, semi-abstract images, like Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, or My Bloody Valentine. Some artists make a statement about where they’re from, whether it’s R.E.M. repping the South with kudzu or Ol’ Dirty Bastard flashing his food-stamps card to salute the Brooklyn Zoo.

Many of these covers come from legendary photographers, designers, and artists, like Andy Warhol, Annie Leibovitz, Storm Thorgerson, Raymond Pettibon, and Peter Saville. Some have cosmic symbolism for fans to decode; others go for star power. But they’re all classic images that have become a crucial part of music history. And they all show why there’s no end to the world’s long-running love affair with albums.

CONTRIBUTORS: David Browne , Jon Dolan , Suzy Exposito , Andy Greene , Kory Grow , Maya Georgi , Maura Johnston , Gabrielle Macafee , Angie Martoccio , Mosi Reeves , Rob Sheffield , Hank Shteamer , Simon Vozick-Levinson , Alison Weinflash , Christopher Weingarten

From Rolling Stone US

Spinal Tap, ‘Smell the Glove’

There was no easy way to discuss “the issue with the cover” of (totally fictitious heavy-metal band) Spinal Tap’s (nonexistent) 1982 album, Smell the Glove, as recounted in a scene from the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap: “You put a greased, naked woman on all fours, with a dog collar around her neck and a leash, and a man’s arm extended out up to here holding onto the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it,” artist-relations rep Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher) says. “You don’t find that offensive?” Well, somebody did, so Spinal Tap ended up with an all-black cover. The band members equivocated it by saying it looked like black leather, a black mirror, death, and mourning. Then Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) got it: “There’s something about this that’s so black, it’s like, ‘How much more black could this be?’ And the answer is, ‘None. None more black.’” The joke manifested itself in real life with Spinal Tap’s soundtrack album, a punk band called None More Black, and “Black Albums” from Metallica, Jay-Z, Prince, the Damned, and many others. Plus, Spinal Tap eventually released their original album cover, albeit toned down a little, years later on the sleeve of their single “Bitch School.” —K.G.

Grateful Dead, ‘Europe 72’

Together or separately, the San Francisco artists Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse made sure that album art for the Grateful Dead was as trippy (1971’s Grateful Dead) or earthy (Workingman’s Dead) as the music inside. Their visuals for the band’s live triple album are among the simplest in Dead album history. The big, clumsy foot about to stomp on Europe is a witty metaphor for the Dead’s wild-eyed series of shows on that continent, and the “fool” smashing an ice-cream cone into his forehead on the back cover is just goofy Dead fun. (It may also be connected to a tale in drummer Bill Kreutzmann’s memoir about the band dumping some ice cream onto an annoying fan.) Even in the land of the Dead, where visual and musical indulgence could rule, Kelley and Mouse realized that sometimes, less is more. —D.B.

Lil Yachty, ‘Lil Boat’

The cover of Lil Yachty’s debut mixtape, Lil Boat, finds the rapper clad in overalls, standing in a small boat in the middle of the ocean. The collage is framed by a red border printed with the numbers 33.7750° N 84.3900° W — coordinates for the Five Points neighborhood in downtown Atlanta — marking the then-18-year-old rap vocalist as the latest manifestation of the city’s fast-moving and highly influential scene. Mihailo Andic, who designed Lil Boat using a photograph provided by Yachty’s management, drew inspiration from Tumblr. “I thought it’d be a great idea to pitch a cover to his management team: Yachty, on a boat, in the middle of nowhere,” he told Green Label in 2016. “My whole style uses retouching and superimposing photos to make them look as one.” —M.R.

Public Image Ltd, ‘Metal Box’

“We were turned on by the idea that it would be difficult to open the can and get the records out,” Public Image Ltd guitarist Keith Levene told author Simon Reynolds in Rip It Up and Start Again. The post-punk pioneers were already blowing apart rock music with their long, repetitive, often improvisatory songs, and Metal Box rethought the album format itself — three 45 rpm LPs to be treated like 12-inch disco singles, all annoyingly crammed into an unwieldy canister. “With Metal Box, the cover came first, both mentally and physically,” frontman John Lydon told Classic Rock. “We spent most of the advance on it, so making Metal Box presented us with a real challenge because we didn’t have any money left for recording sessions.” —C.W.

Phoebe Bridgers, ‘Punisher’

Phoebe Bridgers’ excellent pandemic-era album has a cover that represents everything we were feeling at the time: fear, loneliness, heartbreak, and the secret wish for extraterrestrials to scoop you up into the sky and get you the hell out of here. Bridgers and photographer Olof Grind took a 24-hour road trip through the California desert, scouting for a location. “I always love a good adventure while shooting, and driving out in a pitch-black desert at 3 a.m. on dirt roads definitely added to my excitement,” Grind said. Bridgers made the skeleton suit her signature look, wearing it on the entire Punisher album cycle and tour. And it’s still impossible not to think of Grind’s image when you listen to songs like the gorgeously devastating “Moon Song” and the strangely romantic “Garden Song.” —A.M.

Offset, ‘Set It Off’

Designed and art-directed by Amber Park, the cover image for Offset’s Set It Off shows the Atlanta rapper tumbling through the sky as the world explodes around him. The image represents modern rap’s shift toward Wagnerian-size drama, with Offset as another kind of heroic survivor, outlasting and overcoming his many controversies. He wears sequined socks and gold gloves, which nod toward his fascination with Thriller-era Michael Jackson. And the image is constructed upside down, making it appear like he’s falling into the sky, not out of it. “I wanted it to be an art piece,” he told Our Generation Music. “It’s like I’m falling down but I’m going up.” —M.R.

Slayer, ‘Reign in Blood’

Just how do you illustrate lyrics like “Raining blood from a lacerated sky/Bleeding its horror, creating my structure/Now, I shall reign in blood”? Slayer producer and label head Rick Rubin turned to political cartoonist Larry Carroll, who tapped into his inner Hieronymus Bosch to create a mixed-media representation of hell with a goatlike deity, decapitated heads, and murderous black angels. “If I remember correctly, [Slayer] didn’t like the cover I did for Reign in Blood at first,” Carroll told Revolver in 2010. “But then someone in the band showed it to their mother, and their mother thought it was disgusting, so they knew they were onto something.” Carroll subsequently created similar hellscapes for Slayer’s South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss, and Christ Illusion albums, producing some of the scariest covers in music. —K.G.

Slint, ‘Spiderland’

The members of Slint were just teenagers when they came together in drummer Britt Walford’s Louisville,Kentucky, basement to make the eerily expansive indie rock they’d capture on their epochal 1991 sophomore album, Spiderland. That mix of youthful exuberance and youthful aloneness comes through in the album’s black-and-white cover, which shows them smilingly treading water in a local quarry. The photo was taken by their friend Will Oldham, who’d soon be making his own name with Palace Brothers and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. “We’re just all being youthful and happy,” guitarist Dave Pajo told Rolling Stone’s Hank Shteamer years later, describing the band’s attitude at the time. “When you’re younger, everything is so life-and-death and huge.” —J.D.

Lauryn Hill, ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’

The wood carving at the center of Lauryn Hill’s only official studio album to date is both inspired by artwork for the Wailers’ 1973 album Burnin’ and by the album title itself. “She already had some great ideas that were inspired by the album title,” Columbia art director Erwin Gorostiza told Okayplayer in 2021. The two developed a plan to arrange a photo shoot at Hill’s alma mater, Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. After photographer Eric Johnson snapped images of her, they decided to select one of them as source material for an illustration that resembles something made by a wayward, “miseducated” student on a school desk. The result vividly reflects Hill’s rustic melding of hip-hop, R&B, and reggae sounds, and her journey to find clarity in a world riven by relationships and desire. —M.R.

Big Brother and the Holding Company, ‘Cheap Thrills’

Counterculture cartoonist Robert “R.” Crumb drew the cover for the 1967 debut by Big Brother and the Holding Company, a psychedelic comic strip that tells the album’s story in each of its songs. The artist laid down the cover after watching the band from backstage at San Francisco’s Carousel Ballroom: “He really wasn’t into our music, but it didn’t matter,” drummer Dave Getz recalled. It really didn’t: Crumb still captured the wild, woolly spirit of Janis Joplin and her bandmates, even if he’d intended for what became the front cover to serve as its back sleeve. —M.J.

Ani DiFranco, ‘Up Up Up Up Up Up’

Modern folk-music icon Ani DiFranco built her enduring success on a mix of anti-capitalist commitment, aesthetic ingenuity, DIY community, and her electric charisma. You can see all of those elements in the multidimensional cover image for her 1999 album. It’s a statement of playful substance over predictable image, but even with her face pointed to the ground she still completely commands your attention. The cover photo was taken by her friend and longtime manager Scot Fisher, who helped DiFranco found the Buffalo, New York-based label Righteous Babe. “We were a mom-and-pop operation,” she recalled in a 2016 interview. “Scot was the photographer and the dude who answered the phone, and I was the graphic designer who would paint the album covers.” —J.D. 

Silkk the Shocker, ‘Charge It 2 Da Game’

The garish, maximalist, larger-than-life album covers of Pen & Pixel defined the late-Nineties CD era, when Southern rap labels like No Limit, Cash Money, and Suave House began to topple the East Coast/West Coast monopoly. Brothers Aaron and Shawn Brauch covered hundreds of album covers with their Photoshop wonderlands of luxury cars, sparkling gems, and bottles of champagne. The cover of Silkk the Shocker’s second album — jeweled lettering, gleaming pinky ring, skewed perspective, gold “Ghetto Express” card — is a classic of the form. “The longer you hold that CD cover in your hand, the more possession-oriented you become,” Shawn told Red Bull. “People would comment later, ‘Yeah, man, the album wack, but the artwork was cool.’ I was like, ‘Well, that’s my job done, right?’” —C.W.

Neil Young, ‘On the Beach’

“Album covers are very important to me,” Neil Young wrote in his 2012 memoir, Waging Heavy Peace. “They put a face on the nature of the project.” This is especially true of 1974’s On the Beach, Young’s devastating rumination on Watergate, the recent breakup of his marriage, his recent albums’ commercial failure, and the overall dissolution of the Sixties dream. It’s all evident on the cover, where he’s seen standing on the Santa Monica shore, his back turned away from the camera. The tail light of a 1959 Cadillac emerges from the sand, surrounded by gaudy yellow patio furniture. The headline from a local L.A. paper reads “Sen. Buckley Calls for Nixon to Resign.” Young spontaneously purchased the items with art director Gary Burden while stoned on “dynamite” weed. —A.M.

Devo, ‘Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!’

“What we focused on was inane, mundane, dumb, mass stuff,” said Devo’s Gerald Casale to NBC. “We liked to go to Kmart and Gold Circle because it had all this discount stuff. That’s when I found, in an aisle of discontinued sports goods, the Chi Chi Rodriguez golf-ball package.” For its debut, the band wanted to use the image of the flamboyant golfer they found on a $1.99 box of balls; however, Warner Bros. lawyers intervened. They quickly found a composite photo of four U.S. presidents that Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh called “perfectly hideous” and had it airbrushed onto Rodriguez’s face. —C.W.

Frank Ocean, ‘Blonde’

The now-iconic photograph of Frank Ocean in the shower as he cups his hand over his face, his hair dyed in lime green, was the result of a lengthy 2015 collaboration between him and German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. The image plays to both men’s interest in otherness, not only as a sign of queer identity, but also as a method of presenting a distinctly iconoclastic yet public self. Ocean and Tillmans were brought together for a photo shoot by the fashion magazine Fantastic Man. Blonde introduced Tillmans, who had been documenting underground culture since the Eighties, to a new generation. It also introduced a defining image of the singer, one both invitingly mysterious and alluringly unknowable. —M.R.

Minor Threat, ‘Minor Threat’

Minor Threat epitomized American hardcore punk at its most fiercely independent. You see that spirit in the classic image of singer Ian MacKaye’s brother Alec sleeping on the steps of Dischord House, where so many of the D.C. punk kids lived and where the band ran their label. Alec’s shaved head, his scuffed work boots, his rumpled clothes, his folded arms, his punked-out exhaustion — it summed up the whole ethos of Minor Threat. The image has been a symbol of DIY realness ever since, inspiring many tributes, most famously the cover of Rancid’s 1995 …And Out Come the Wolves. No wonder corporate America wanted a piece — Nike tried to appropriate it for their bizarre 2005 “Major Threat” ad campaign, until public outrage shut it down. —R.S.

Jay-Z, ‘The Blueprint’

For The Blueprint, Jay-Z turned to Jonathan Mannion, a photographer who had shot all of Jay’s covers since his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt. Mannion took inspiration from Jocelyn Bain Hogg, a British photographer who snapped South London gangster Dave Courtney giving a lecture at Oxford Union, for his book The Firm. Mannion’s shot replicates the aerial framing, finding Jay-Z looking away from the camera, holding court over a group of minions only identified by their shoes. Designer Jason Noto of Def Jam’s in-house creative department the Drawing Board cast the entire image in faded blues and grays. In 2021, Jay sued Mannion over prints the photographer sold from their many sessions. The two settled out of court in 2023. —M.R.

Taylor Swift, ‘Folklore’

Taylor Swift stepped back from her songs on her eighth album: “I found myself not only writing my own stories, but also writing about or from the perspective of people I’ve never met, people I’ve known, or those I wish I hadn’t,” she posted upon Folklore’s release in 2020. Its striking monochromatic cover — a departure from the candy-coated Lover front, and the first collaboration between Swift and photographer Beth Garrabrant — is similarly situated in the wide world, with the coat-clad singer seeming tiny amid mist-cloaked trees and mossy terrain, gazing upward with a pondering expression. —M.J.   

Shakira, ‘Dónde Están los Ladrones?’

After wrapping up her 1997 Pies Descalzos Tour, Shakira landed in Bogotá, Columbia, to discover her briefcase had been stolen … and in it, the songs she’d written for her next album. She’d decidedly named her 1998 record “Dónde Están los Ladrones?” or “Where Are the Thieves?” — and conceptualized the theft as an allegory for thefts of all kinds, including that of Columbia by corrupt politicians, drug lords, and paramilitaries, during what’s since been described as the “Dirty Wars.” Shot against a statement hot pink, Shakira posed for her album cover donning edgy purple braids, with extended dirt-covered palms. “The dirty hands represent the shared guilt,” she said of her cover. “No one is completely clean.… In the end, we are all accomplices.” —S.E.

King Crimson, ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’

King Crimson knew they were onto something big when they pieced together “21st Century Schizoid Man,” the snarling, sweeping portrait of an unraveling collective consciousness that would open their 1969 debut LP. And when artist Barry Godber dropped by London’s Wessex Studios to show them the cover painting that lyricist Peter Sinfield had commissioned, they knew they’d found the perfect visual counterpart. “This fucking face screamed up from the floor, and what it said to us was ‘schizoid man’ — the very track we’d been working on,” bassist-vocalist Greg Lake later recalled. Pairing the image with lyrics like “Blood rack, barbed wire/Politicians’ funeral pyre/Innocents raped with napalm fire,” it’s hardly a leap to imagine the cover figure looking on in horror at the atrocities the song describes. —H.S.

Weyes Blood, ‘Titanic Rising’

On the cover of Titanic Rising, Natalie Mering — the California singer-songwriter who records as Weyes Blood — appears inside an eerie deep-sea installation, hovering between a brass bed and a white wicker desk, with posters adorning the walls. The image perfectly captures the themes of Titanic Rising: millennial doom, the climate crisis, the isolation of technology, and water itself. “This bullshit initiation into culture — for most young people in the Westernized world, it’s their bedroom,” she told Rolling Stone. “They hang up posters of their favorite celebrities and their favorite movies, and they formulate these ideas about life and what life should be like, and what they want. And it’s all an incubation of capitalist bullshit. But it’s still very sacred.” —A.M.

Lil Wayne, ‘Tha Carter III’

“I’m going to be so honest with you: I don’t know Tha Carter III, Tha Carter II, Tha Carter One from Tha Carter IV. And that’s just my God’s honest truth,” Lil Wayne told RS last year. “I believe that [God] blessed me with this amazing mind, but would not give [me] an amazing memory to remember this amazing shit.” Fair enough. But the cover of Tha Carter III, Wayne’s best album, is unforgettable. Rappers have made iconic album artwork using baby photos before — think Ready to Die, Illmatic — but Wayne took it a step further, giving Baby Weezy a diamond pinky ring and some facial ink, for an image that summed up the unstoppable, no-fucks-given charm that made him a superstar. “We wanted to bring something new to it,” art director Scott Sandler said. “What if we put the tats on the baby?” —A.M.

New York Dolls, ‘New York Dolls’

Rolling Stone’s review of the New York Dolls’ 1973 self-titled debut refers to the punk pioneers as “mutant children of the hydrogen age.” This comes across perfectly on the album cover, which shows the androgynous quartet slumped together on a couch, slathered in makeup and hairspray. It was created by Vogue photographer Toshi Matsuo after the Dolls nixed a plan by their label to shoot them near vintage dolls in an antique shop, sans makeup. “That couch we were sitting on, we found that on the street and brought it up,” said guitarist Sylvain Sylvain. “We put the white fabric on it — I remember tacking it on.” The look was so ahead of its time that imitators wouldn’t come along until hair metal arrived a decade later. —A.G.

The Smiths, ‘The Queen Is Dead’

Throughout the Smiths’ feverishly productive run in the mid-Eighties, lead singer Morrissey selected photo stills depicting midcentury movies and pop-culture moments for their singles and albums. His pick for the Smith’s third album, The Queen Is Dead, may be their most iconic: an image of French superstar Alain Delon in the film L’Insoumis, lying in distress. The concept of this beautifully handsome yet controversially macho star — the Brad Pitt of the Sixties — as a “queen” nods toward Morrissey’s subversive sense of humor. The layout, handled by Rough Trade’s Caryn Gough, casts the photo in shades of dark green, making Delon appear as a doomed royal in their death throes. —M.R.

Tyler, the Creator, ‘Igor’

The cover for Tyler, the Creator’s fifth solo album is striking in its minimalism: a pained close-up of the California-born polymath combined with a typewriter-font assertion that he was responsible for all the album’s sonics, and a salmon backdrop that feels aggressive despite its pastel hue. Igor further established Tyler as an artist willing to push himself into new realms, and the cover announces that to anyone flipping through a collection. “We work well together because I believe in what he wants to create,” photographer Luis “Pancho” Perez, who worked with Tyler to create the cover, told Complex in 2019. “Nothing has really changed his confidence in himself.” —M.J.

Radiohead, ‘Kid A’

At the close of the 20th century, Radiohead were an acclaimed British rock band desperate to be anything else. That jittery unease fueled the artwork that Thom Yorke created with his old friend Stanley Donwood, riffing on ancient mythology and paranoid dreams in late-night sessions. “There was an air of chaos suddenly, and that was really fun,” Yorke told Rolling Stone years later. The cover they chose for Kid A has all the unsettling intensity of the music Yorke was making with his bandmates: an icy, forbidding mountain range, like something out of a digital nightmare. “It was almost a dark fairyland,” Donwood said. “A very lonely, cold, and quiet place, apart from the punctuations of terrible war.” —S.V.L.

Blur, ‘Parklife’

Designers Rob O’Connor and Chris Thompson took to London’s streets for inspiration as they were brainstorming a cover for what would go on to be Blur’s era-defining 1994 album. While peering in the window of a betting lounge for sports-related ideas, they found a concept that had bite: “We centered in on the greyhounds,” Blur guitarist Graham Coxon told Brit-pop chronicler Dylan Jones in 2022’s Faster Than a Cannonball, “because they had an aggressiveness we liked. We chose the ones with the most teeth. They look deranged, just longing to kill, and there’s a bizarre look in their faces. You just don’t get that look with a footballer — well, maybe a little bit.” The image of racing dogs underscored the hunger of the best Brit-pop, and set Blur apart from their more glam-minded peers. —M.J.

Willie Nelson, ‘Red Headed Stranger’

On his legendary 1975 opus, Red Headed Stranger, Willie Nelson tells the tale of a preacher on the run after killing his own child and unfaithful wife. Nelson stepped into the role of an outlaw on the cover (designed by Monica White), which showed his unruly image framed in the style of a ‘Wanted’ poster. Red Headed Stranger was country music’s first concept album, a watershed for the outlaw-country movement that included Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, and its cover went a long way toward creating the subgenre’s rough-hewn iconography.  —G.M.

Billie Eilish, ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’

Just like the music, the cover of Bille Eilish’s classic debut drops you right into her creepy-crawly teenage nightmares. Photographer Kenneth Cappello collaborated with Eilish on a 12-hour shoot, ending up with a deeply unsettling shot of Eilish sitting on bed, her eyes entirely white, pupils obscured. Eilish brought in sketches of her inspirations for the cover, which included the Babadook. (“I got so much inspiration from The Babadook,” she told Rolling Stone in 2019.) “She’s all in,” Cappello told MTV News. “Those wide eyes? Those aren’t in post, those are contacts. She goes all in on everything.”

FKA Twigs, ‘LP1’

The hauntingly plastic visage of British musician FKA Twigs dominates the cover of LP1, a bizarre representation of her disturbingly mutant electronic pop. It was constructed by Jesse Kanda, who met her via his longtime friend and collaborator Arca. “We did the front cover for her album in my room, with my shitty lights, and no people running around. I have the most control when I do everything myself,” he told Dazed in 2014. He sculpted a photograph of her using 3D technology, manipulating and warping the image, then painted over the results. Longtime XL Recordings art director Phil Lee and Twigs collaborated on the aquamarine blue design that spotlighted Kanda’s imagery. In 2015, the cover earned a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package. —M.R.

Grace Jones, ‘Nightclubbing’

The famous Nightclubbing photo of Grace Jones dressed in an Armani suit, a cigarette dangling from her lips, was the culmination of a tempestuous personal and professional relationship between her and photographer Jean-Paul Goude. The image seemed as much a cheeky New Wave commentary on corporate Eighties style as an exercise in gender-bending fashion. But despite observers’ claims (and criticism) of how Goude crafted and manipulated her image, Jones has always asserted that she was in control of the process. “Jean-Paul would say, later…that he had created me,” she wrote in her 2015 autobiography, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs. “I knew that wasn’t the case, that I was creating myself before I met him.”–M.R.

R.E.M., ‘Murmur’

Lots of Southern bands had used pastoral imagery on their album covers to underscore their music’s down-home difference. R.E.M. flipped the script with the cover of their debut, Murmur. The front image shows a goth-y woods overrun by kudzu — a weed that grows so fast it covers and kills any plant in its way. The back image is of a disused train trestle near the band’s hometown of Athens, Georgia. Taken together, it was a perfect reflection of the band’s mysterious, enveloping sound. The “Murmur Trestle” immediately became part of local lore, defended by R.E.M. fans when it was approved for demolition in 2019. “Why do they need to preserve it?” said photographer Sandra-Lee Phipps, who took both photos. “It was just done randomly. Somehow it ended up mattering to people.” —J.D.

Van Halen, ‘1984’

When Warner Bros. designer Margo Nahas heard Van Halen’s original concept for the cover of their sixth LP — four dancing women made out of chrome — she quickly passed. (Already a seasoned illustrator of chrome, she “couldn’t imagine doing all the reflections,” she later said.) But when her husband, fellow designer Jay Vigon, brought her portfolio to the band, they were instantly drawn to her now-iconic painting of an angelic baby grinning and holding a smoke, which she’d modeled off a friend’s son. “I took a picture of him, took him candy cigarettes, which he proceeded to eat, every single one, after a brief tantrum, of course,” Nahas recalled in 2020. The impish yet innocent image encapsulated the lovable mischief of the band’s “Hot for Teacher” era. —H.S.

Lorde, ‘Melodrama’

For her highly-anticipated sophomore album, Lorde crafted a delicate cover that evoked Melodrama’s emotional heft. Painted by the Brooklyn artist Sam McKinnis — whom Lorde connected with via a fangirling email — and inspired by an image that McKinnis had made riffing on the cover of Prince’s Purple Rain, the cover is based on a photograph McKinnis took of Lorde as she lay in bed. Drenched in the shadows of a moody, electric blue that could swatch a dance floor or the walls of a club bathroom, with warm cracks of daybreak creeping on Lorde’s cheek, the image depicts her in the morning after a night of dancing with “all the heartache and treason” she sang about on the album. —M.G.

Marvin Gaye, ‘Here, My Dear’

There are breakup albums, and then there’s Here, My Dear, Marvin Gaye’s brutally honest unpacking of his in-progress divorce from his first wife, Anna Gordy. The serene front cover shows Gaye depicted as a Roman statue, standing in front of a lavish temple — its cornerstone bearing the inscription “Love and Marriage” — next to a sculpture of embracing lovers. But by the time you see the back-cover image, the sculpture and the temple have caught fire and are actively crumbling, and the inscription on the building now reads “Pain and Divorce.” If all that weren’t bleak enough, on the inner sleeve, we see a couple’s hands engaged in a Monopoly-like board game, with all their earthly possessions at stake between them, and the scales of justice looming ominously in the background. —H.S.

DJ Shadow, ‘Endtroducing’

DJ Shadow’s 1996 debut LP was constructed almost entirely out of samples, a love letter to funky, crackly old vinyl that was released into a world where most record stores only sold CDs. The cover image shows two of Shadow’s buddies from the Bay Area hip-hop label SoulSides, producer Chief Xcel and rapper Lyrics Born, going through the stacks at Records, a local institution (now closed) that billed itself as “a speciality shop dealing in out-of-print phonograph records.” As Shadow said of the store in the documentary Scratch, “Just being in here is a humbling experience because you’re looking through all these records, and it’s sort of like a big pile of broken dreams, in a way.” —J.D.

Sonny Rollins, ‘Way Out West’

“I was really living out my Lone Ranger thing,” Sonny Rollins said in 2009, reflecting on his Western-themed classic Way Out West. He wanted a cover that evoked the Westerns he grew up on, so photographer William Claxton suggested they pick up a ten-gallon hat, a holster, and a steer’s skull and head to the Mojave Desert, where he shot Rollins holding his saxophone and staring down the camera like a hardened cowboy. Some were critical of what they saw as the photo’s hokey premise and incorrectly assumed that Rollins was pressured into it. “Many people thought wrongly over the years that I was asked to pose that way or that the material was forced on me, because California was thought to be a movie place and a commercial place,” he said. “Not true. I was given complete control.” —H.S.

Janet Jackson, ‘The Velvet Rope’

With its themes of self-care, depression, and the then-taboo exploration of Black female queerness, The Velvet Rope may be Janet Jackson’s most intimate full-length work. Ironically, its cover depicts her clothed, not topless as on the Patrick Demarchelier-photographed shot on her previous album, 1993’s Janet. Photographer Ellen von Unwerth captured Jackson dressed in a black turtleneck with her head pointed downward. Meanwhile, the deep-red background tipped her audience to the burning emotions inside Jackson, as if she’s struggling to get it all out. (The interior photographs, shot by von Unwerth and Mario Testino, are more risqué.) “You know people they still ask me about it,” said von Unwerth of the enigmatic cover. “It became more iconic in a way.” —M.R.

My Bloody Valentine, ‘Loveless’

Swoosh-y abstraction was a go-to look for turn-of-the-Nineties shoegaze bands like Ride, Slowdive, and Swervedriver. But those bands usually worked in moody blues and grays. My Bloody Valentine’s choice of hot pink (a color you were more likely to see on a Poison record) for the cover of their 1990 masterpiece Loveless grabbed your eye with a look as undeniably loud as the band’s stomach-rattling guitar swells. MBV mastermind Kevin Shields and visual artist Angus Cameron collaborated on the image, taking a screengrab of Shields’ hands on his guitar from the band’s Cameron-directed “Too Shallow” video and turning it into a blur of radiant abstraction. —J.D.

Beastie Boys, ‘Licensed to Ill’

The cover of the Beastie Boys’ debut is as brash and playfully referential as the Beasties’ sound. Producer Rick Rubin got the idea for the cover — a Boeing 727 with a Beastie Boys logo and a tail number that, viewed in the mirror, says “eat me” — while reading through the Led Zeppelin bio Hammer of the Gods and spying a photo of the band’s private jet. “I wanted to embrace and somehow distinguish,” he said in the book 100 Best Album Covers, “in a sarcastic way, the larger than life rock & roll lifestyle.” Artists Stephen Byram and World B. Omes crafted the gatefold cover with a surprise in mind — at first it looks almost majestic, but when seen in full, the plane is revealed to have crashed, its front end crumpled. The resulting image provides another layer of irony: The plane, many have noted, looks like a joint smashed in an ashtray.

Joni Mitchell, ‘Hejira’

Joni Mitchell wrote Hejira while traveling cross-country, so she could have slapped a photo of an open road on the cover and called it a day. Instead, it was only the beginning. The sleek road sits inside a black-and-white Norman Seeff portrait of Mitchell, “haunted, like a Bergman figure,” wearing a beret and holding a cigarette. Around 14 photos were used for the cover and sleeves — including figure skater Toller Cranston out on the ice, to complete the wintry vibe — and an airbrush was used to make the images on the cover look like one cohesive illustration. The effort paid off, creating a beautifully intricate album cover to represent delicate tracks like “Amelia” and “Song for Sharon.” Looking back, Mitchell said it’s her favorite cover of hers: “A lot of work went into that.” —A.M.

Sonic Youth, ‘Goo’

Sonic Youth’s long run as the official band of America’s avant-garde art scene means that their catalog is full of iconic images, like Daydream Nation’s Gerhard Richter candle painting and Dirty’s Mike Kelley rag doll. But none are as enduring as the black-and-white sketch that SoCal punk legend Raymond Pettibon contributed to Goo. The pair of impossibly cool young sociopaths and their neo-noir tale of sex and death have been endlessly memed since then, but back in 1990, they made execs at the band’s new major-label home nervous — which was kind of the point. “That was so important at the time,” Lee Ranaldo later told biographer David Browne. “In a way, we were still in that world … that our ‘scene’ was making.” —S.V.L.

Rosalía, ‘El Mal Querer’

Rosalía tapped a longtime internet friend, the Spanish Croatian artist Filip Ćustić, to conceive what he’s described as a “visual universe” for her 2018 flamenco-pop masterwork, El Mal Querer. The two chatted over Whatsapp to devise an image for each track that would “update Spanish imagery to the 21st century.” In consistency with the record’s theme, Ćustić depicts Rosalía as an ethereal queen of the seraphs, a symbol of the divine feminine, liberated from the tyranny of a controlling man. “She emerges naked from the heavens, as if she were a goddess more than a virgin, saying, ‘This is me, and this has been my learning process,’” explained Ćustić in Spanish newspaper El Pais. —S.E.

Lana Del Rey, ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’

On the cover of her sixth album, Lana Del Rey seems to be pulling us into her world of deconstructed American myths, as she clings to the Kennedy-esque figure of Jack Nicholson’s grandson Duke Nicholson. From its oil-painted blue sky to Del Rey’s bright-green nylon jacket, the image’s retro-modern feel perfectly reflects the way the music inside offers her own 2010s vision of fading Laurel Canyon glory. The cover photo was taken by Del Rey’s sister, Caroline “Chuck” Grant, who has collaborated with the singer on a number of music videos and photo shoots (including a 2023 cover of Rolling Stone UK). “She captures what I consider to be the visual equivalent of what I do sonically,” Del Rey said in a 2014 interview. —G.M.

T. Rex, ‘Electric Warrior’

Few rock sleeves feel as purposefully barren as the Electric Warrior cover, which finds glam god Marc Bolan suspended, along with his guitar and amp, in what might as well be an interstellar void. Using a live-image shot by Kieron Murphy, Hipgnosis designers Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell added a striking gold halo that helped turn Bolan into a visual icon at precisely the point when he was completing his metamorphosis from flower-child folkie to consummate rock & roll dandy. “Black and gold, the metal guru in full force,” Beck once wrote of one of his favorite album-art specimens. “This is what we want a rock cover to look like.” —H.S.

A Tribe Called Quest, ‘The Low End Theory’

The cover of A Tribe Called Quest’s second album features an unnamed model photographed by Joe Grant. She’s kneeling in black shadows, her body covered in green and red paint. It’s partly inspired by Ohio Players’ memorable 1970s run of covers that depicted women in freaky and suggestive positions. “I wanted a white background for the shot, but they flipped it and made it black,” said group leader Q-Tip in the 2005 book Rakim Told Me. All of the Low End Theory’s visual elements, from the woman in body paint to the red-black-green color scheme reminiscent of the Pan-African flag, became defining elements for Tribe moving forward, and a signature for their deep-rooted and jazz-inflected bohemian sound. —M.R.

Björk, ‘Homogenic’

The making of Homogenic was a fraught time for Björk, as she adjusted to a new level of global fame and the suicide of Ricardo López, a disturbed fan who mailed a letter bomb to her London home. After spotting a striking fashion photo created by photographer Nick Knight and designer Alexander McQueen, she enlisted them to sum up the various emotional currents in her life in an arresting hyperreal portrait. The blend of cultural elements — a Japanese kimono, a European manicure, Maasai neck rings, and a Hopi “butterfly whorl” hairstyle — reflected Björk’s perception of herself as a global citizen. As she later said: “We were trying to make this person that was under a lot of restraint, like long manicure, neckpiece, headpiece, contact lenses — still trying to keep the strength.” —H.S.

Judas Priest, ‘British Steel’

Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton put in his time at the British Steel Corporation, working for the steel producer for five years before his band — who produce a different kind of heavy metal — decided to name their sixth album, British Steel. The title clicked with art director Rosław Szaybo and photographer Bob Elsdale, who created a giant razor blade out of aluminum with the band’s logo on it. Szaybo volunteered to hold it for the shot. “A lot of people looked at it and were really quite horrified,” Elsdale told Revolver. “The edges of the blade seemed to be cutting into Rosław’s flesh, because he was really gripping it quite hard. But that wasn’t the case — it actually had blunt edges. It wasn’t bloody, but it had an element of drama.” —K.G.

Sleater-Kinney, ‘The Hot Rock’

“It’s a labyrinthine record,” Carrie Brownstein wrote of Sleater-Kinney’s fourth LP, The Hot Rock, in her memoir, “sad, fractious, not a victory lap, but speaking to uncertainty.” Following up on their 1997 breakthrough, Dig Me Out, Brownstein, Corin Tucker, and Janet Weiss were working through interpersonal struggles while facing more scrutiny than ever before. The cover photo by Marina Chavez, showing the band standing on a Portland, Oregon, street corner, captures that heavy energy: Tucker and Weiss each stare toward the curb, the drummer looking almost trepidatious, while Brownstein holds up her hand, hailing a cab, her face bearing a disgruntled expression. Like the jewel thieves in the 1972 heist film that gave the album its name, the trio had no choice but to get a move on and meet their moment. —H.S.

David Bowie, ‘Diamond Dogs’

David Bowie closed out his glam era with the decadent apocalyptic excess of Diamond Dogs, a concept album set in a crumbling America of the future. “When we got to Diamond Dogs,” he later said, “that was when it was out of control.” The deranged spirit extended to its cover, designed by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert, which depicted Bowie as a grotesque half-man/half-dog, including genitals on his twisted body. Bowie’s pose on the cover was inspired by a 1926 photo of singer Josephine Baker. Just as the album was ready to get shipped to retailers, Bowie’s record label pulled the cover and had it airbrushed into something less offensive. Some copies did make it out, and Diamond Dogs remains the most provocative album cover of Bowie’s career. —G.M.

• Album Reviews
• Live Reviews
• Australian Music Festivals
• Sustainability Expand the sub menu
• The First Time
• How I Wrote This
• Cover Shoots
• Rolling Stone Daily News
• Rolling Stone Interview
• Rolling Stone Australia Awards 2022 Expand the sub menu
• The 200 Expand the sub menu
• Competition Ts & Cs
• Terms of use
• RS Recommends

Alerts & Newsletters

• Submit a Tip
• Submit an op-ed
• Submit a video

Support long-form journalism. Subscribe to Rolling Stone Magazine