7. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
The To Pimp a Butterfly album cover is an example of the uninhibited joy and expansive opportunity that comes when someone from the hood makes it. The black and white image features Kendrick Lamar’s community peoples outside of the White House posing as if they are at a block party. Complete with that familiar competitive floss one has in a posse shot when they want to have the most crazy look in the snapshot, there are all kinds of sacred elements of the hood woven into the flick like stacks of cash, bare-chested machismo, and champagne bottles. On the bottom with his eyes, X’ed out is a judge, a representative of all of those who have yielded power and discrimination toward the people featured and failing to see their humanity.