15. Mos Def, Black on Both Sides
Mos Def’s bronze-tinted countenance, framed by a powerful black colored background, on the cover of his seminal work Black on Both Sides is at the very least a work of art. A perfect complement to his musical debut solo album, the LP’s optics helped define him as an artist. Stripped down and boldly African, the cover was purposefully stark and proved Mos to be the most unapologetic artist of his generation. Shout out to Alvaro Gonzalez-Campo, the photographer, for insisting on red and yellow gels to accentuate Mos’ face making the cover stand out in 1999 like magic as an incredible portrait of the man that would one day become Yasiin Bey.