‘Billboard’ ranks Lil’ Kim’s ‘Hard Core’ as greatest hip-hop album cover of all time
Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on November 26, 2025
Lil’ Kim‘s 1996 debut studio album, Hard Core, has topped Billboard‘s list of best hip-hop album covers of all time.
The artwork, shot by Michael Lavine, finds Kim in some lingerie as she poses on top of a polar bear skin rug in a room decorated with roses and champagne. “Kim balances aggressive sexuality and reticent allure, grounding both in the power of the Divine Feminine,” Billboard‘s Kyle Denis writes of the cover. “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,” he continues, “few album covers encapsulate that as stylishly as Hard Core.”
The other album covers in the top five are Outkast‘s Stankonia at #2, DMX‘s Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of my Blood at #3, Kanye West‘s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at #4 and The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die at #5.
The full list is now available at Billboard.com.
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