Ahhh the cliche, yet classic, baby picture album cover.
Late last night, Drake unveiled not one, but two covers for his highly anticipated album, Nothing Was The Same.
In an effort to illustrate his journey from the bottom (hints the baby cover) to the top (hints the grown man Drake cover), Drake released an animated version of his baby picture, or what kind of looks like baby Drizzy.
Following in the footsteps of artists like Nas, Common, and Lil Wayne, Drake joined the long lineage of classic baby picture album covers.
GlobalGrind decided to round up other album covers that feature artists’ baby pictures. So, take a second and awww yourself to death by looking at all the cute album covers below.
Kendrick Lamar- good kid, m.A.A.d city
Released: October 22, 2012
Concept Behind The Album Cover:
“Two of my uncles, that’s two of them, to the far right, that’s my grandpa and a baby bottle next to a 40-ounce next to a gang sign, holding a kid. It’s not just music to me. This is a story about the youth and the people that they call delinquents in my city. You look in the background and you see a picture on the wall of me and my pops. The eyes blanked out, that’s for my own personal reasons. You’ll probably hear about that in the album, but that photo just says so much about my life and how I was raised in Compton and the things I’ve seen through innocent eyes. You don’t see no one else’s eyes, but you see my eyes of innocence and trying to figure out what’s going on.”
Nas- Illmatic
Released: April 19, 1994
Concept Behind The Album Cover:
“When I made Illmatic, I was a little kid in Queensbridge trapped in the ghetto. My soul was trapped in the Queensbridge projects. The hip-hop media lied to me and said there was no world outside of Queensbridge: ‘Stay there.’ I chose to search for the truth, journey out, bring the truth back to Queensbridge, and that’s my mission. “
Lil Wayne- Tha Carter III & Tha Carter IV
Released: June 10, 2008 & August 29, 2011
Concept Behind Album Cover: Lil Wayne wanted to put his baby picture on his highly anticipated Tha Carter III, so to give it a little more flavor, Weezy and his team Photoshopped tattoos (face tats included) to make the cover a little more gangsta.
Below, Wayne decided to roll with the same concept, but this time he added a picture of his kindergarten graduation.
Rah Digga- Classic
Released: September 14, 2010
Concept Behind Album Cover: Rah Digga says she was “inspired by Nas’ Illmatic album cover,” which is revered as a hip-hop classic.
Common- “One Day It’ll All Make Sense”
Released: September 30, 1997
Concept Behind The Album Cover: The album was revered as a retrospective project, so Common used a throwback picture of him at 8-years-old alongside his mother at a Montego Bay, Jamaica airport in 1980.
Obie Trice- Bottoms Up
Released: April 13, 2012
Concept Behind Album Cover:
According to the graphic artist who designed Obie’s album cover:
“The story behind the artwork with baby Obie on the cover is like it’s a new life, a new beginning for Obie since he had been dropped from Interscope and started his own label, Black Market Entertainment, its like he’s starting all over again.”
Jill Scott- Beautifully Human: Words & Sounds Vol. 2
Released: August 31, 2004
Concept Behind Album Cover: Known for her vibrant storytelling through music, Jill Scott decided to put a childhood picture of herself as the album cover so her fans could understand her journey through life in a more visual manner.
