Image via Getty
16.
The game is in disarray once again.
Earlier this week, Drake took a break from making headlines on his "It's All a Blur" tour to reveal the cover for his highly-anticipated project, For All the Dogs. The cover art looks like it was drawn by a child. That's because it was. His 5-year-old son Adonis was the artist beyond the red-eye dog that graces the cover.
Now that we have a look at the For All the Dogs cover, we wanted to see how it stacked up to the rest of Drake's catalog. The Toronto native has released a number of great, and horrible, album covers over the years. There are the highs like baby Drake's head in a cloudy blue sky and the lows of Certified Lover Boy. Some have even turned into memes upon release—remember the ones Twitter made when Views dropped? Check out our ranking of every Drake album cover, below.
15.Certified Lover Boy
When: 2021
If nothing else, the cover for Certified Lover Boy is certainly a conversation starter. The white background occupied by 12 pregnant women emojis in various skin tones and sweater colors is actually the work of famed contemporary artist Damien Hirst. The multicolored sweaters are reminiscent of his signature spot paintings. But what does it really mean? Is Drake just flexing that he got a big name artist to do his cover art? Is it an odd representation of the album title? Getting a dozen women pregnant would certainly certify you as a lover boy I guess. Some fans on the internet have even cobbled together a theory about the fact it has been nine months since the initial announcement of CLB back in January, the length of a full-term pregnancy, hence the emoji choice. Could it be a chess move in his ongoing war of words with Kanye West? It was rumored that Ye planned to use another one of Hirst’s works of art for the Donda cover. We don’t have the answers. Either way, this is a weird one. We wish he stuck with the yellow “CLB” lettering or ski mask-wearing cupid that were frequently used to promote the project for months prior instead. —Mike DeStefano
14.Honestly, Nevermind
When: 2022
Honestly, Nevermind, Drake's plunge into house music, has aged fairly well since its surprise drop in June 2022. Initially, many fans weren't ready to embrace Drake's Turks and Caicos vacation playlist vibes, but have you listened to "Sticky" or "A Keeper" lately? Undeniable. What hasn't aged as well is the cover art for the album. Sure, Drake has found success with word art covers like IYRTITL in the past, but this one isn't quite as memorable. The custom typography by Parisian graphic designer Ben Dorado isn't necessarily bad. It's just makes for a lackluster album cover, especially considering it represents such an experimental body of music for Drake. —Mike DeStefano
13.Care Package
When: 2019
Care Package was a trip down memory lane for Drake fans. It was his first compilation album that included songs released between 2010 and 2016 that weren’t available for purchase or streaming until 2019, when this project was released. The album art feels pedestrian, which might have been purposeful since it speaks to a time when Drake hadn’t become the superstar he is today. It features the grill of an unidentified car with an OVO owl logo—some say it’s reminiscent of the Acura TSX that Drake drove in 2004—and white text with a glow that has a subtle Pen & Pixel influence. Does it feel phoned in? Yes. But this project wasn’t selling new music per se, so we get why it didn’t need to be extravagant or memorable in the same way Drake’s other album covers have been. —Aria Hughes
12.Thank Me Later
When: 2010
As far as major-label debuts go, it doesn’t get more formulaic than this. Both the album and the cover art for Thank Me Later are too cookie-cutter. Drake is playing it too safe. This cover art isn’t an intro for a debut album filled with huge features from Lil Wayne, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, and more. It feels easily replaceable and lacks Drake’s fingerprint. Where the cover for his previous mixtape, So Far Gone, told somewhat of a story of a rookie Drake reaching for rap Mt. Olympus using his brand as a ladder, the cover for Thank Me Later has him in neutral. The ambition of “Miss Me” and the gutsiness of “Fancy” aren’t represented here. It’s just an out-of-focus, infrared Drake. Despite it releasing in 2010, it still left much to be desired.—Jordan Rose
11.What A Time To Be Alive
When: 2015
Yes, this is just a Shutterstock image of some diamonds. But this one just works. A bunch of diamonds pairs well with the braggadocios nature of many of Drake and Future's bars on the collaborative project. It isn't the most creative thing in the world. But neither was Future's DS2, which used an image from a science textbook cover, and that cover is also iconic. The stock photo of the diamonds was shot by the New York City-based photographer Christina Tisi-Kramer. In an interview with Complex, Tisi-Kramer revealed that she shot the diamonds for the Julius Klein Group, a company that rates the value and clarity of diamonds, while also shooting some stock images for herself. “It’s one of my best selling images because of the nondescript luxury items that they are,” she told Complex. —Mike DeStefano
10.Scorpion
When: 2018
Drake was beaten and battered going into Scorpion. He had just taken his first real loss in a rap beef with his heavily publicized bout against Pusha T that ended with a TMZ-like reveal that the rapper had a son. His fortress had been penetrated, his inner sanctum pillaged, and the seemingly infallible image he had crafted over the last decade felt cracked; if not for a moment. That moment was captured on this cover art, with Drake opting for a black and white image for the first time. The portrait is also as ambiguous as the album. It doesn’t depict just one feeling. He doesn’t look as sullen as he did on Take Care or as resolute as he did on Nothing Was The Same.
While the double-sided album itself comes with some of Drake’s longest-charting songs like “God's Plan” and “Nice For What,” it also features a second act that he describes as “tragic” on “Sandra’s Rose,” and that duality is reflected on the cover. However, despite Scorpion’s ambiguity, the cover art is crystallized on the album’s opening track when Drake raps, “My Mt. Rushmore is me with four different expressions.” —Jordan Rose
9.More Life
When: 2017
Drake's sense of style had to come from someone. Enter Drake’s dad Dennis Graham, the drip god who birthed the 6 God. Anyone who’s seen a picture of Drake’s old man knows he always goes crazy with his fits. Typically seen donning a very large mustache, suits, and fedoras, we can definitely tell that Dennis was a Certified Lover Boy during his golden years. And when Drake and his dad go out together, it’s clear that the father-son duo are on the same wavelength because they somehow end up wearing similar outfits all the time. So what better way to acknowledge your stylish pops than placing him directly on the cover of your own album? Originally released as a “playlist,” Drake put a picture of his dad from the ‘80s, front and center, on the cover of More Life. In an interview with a British radio station, Dennis explained the story behind the iconic photo. “I took this picture in 1983 and I was writing a song in a chair next to a piano. That’s where it came from.” If you were ever curious what type of music Dennis makes, just check out the music videos for “That on That” and “Kinda Crazy.” Clearly, Drake only took notes from his pop’s style. —LT
8.Dark Lane Demo Tapes
When: 2020
Drake’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes is billed as a collection of loosies more than a true album. But that didn’t mean that any corners were cut when it came to the presentation. For this release, Drake enlisted his go-to videographer Theo Skudra. The image maker was the man behind the menacing image of Drake in a balaclava that graces the cover. Drake’ face on his album covers is nothing new. In fact, it’s common. But this particular look perfectly matches the title and vibe of some of the standout tracks on the project like “War” and “Demons” that make this once seem more intentional. The original photo was taken on an old large format Polaroid camera. It’s actually an 8x10 portrait that was resized for the cover. During a 2020 interview, Skudra told Complex this of his working relationship with the rap superstar.
“I actually get asked that a lot about what comes next and that sort of starts to establish this thought that what I’m doing with Drake is temporary and I don’t really see it as that. Working with him, to me, it’s a collaboration that I don’t see having or needing to stop.” —MD
7.So Far Gone
When: 2009
The So Far Gone mixtape was a seminal moment for Drake. It was his third mixtape, but it pushed him into a larger conversation around who’s next up in rap. The cover art was designed by Darkie, a Toronto-based illustrator, who flipped an ad from The Economist. Darkie told Complex that the OVO team didn’t know what they wanted but they knew they wanted something different. “Every rapper you know wants their face on their artwork, and it got to a point that it was super annoying to me. Oliver [El-Khatib] gave me free reign to come up with something. I sent him a bunch of art that I said I would love to flip and he selected The Economist ad. I flipped the text and instead of a spider the kid was curious about, we added money and hearts. It just felt right with the vibe of the mixtape,” said Darkie.
Drake told Complex that the album art was inspired by conversations he had with Oliver. “One night we were having a discussion about women and the way we were talking about them. It was so brazen and so disrespectful. He texted me right after we got off the phone and he was like, ‘Are we becoming the men that our mothers divorced?’ That’s really where the cover comes from, too. It’s just this kid in pursuit of love and money.”
It’s graphic and impactful cover that depicts when Drake’s identity as an artist was crystalizing. —AH
6.Her Loss
When: 2022
Who is that woman? You likely asked yourself that question when you first saw the cover for Drake and 21 Savage's Her Loss. We did the detective work for you in case you still don't know. The portrait of Suki Baby, a Houston-based nail stylist and adult dancer, was taken by photographer Paris Aden. In a now-deleted Instagram post, Lil Yachty says he ultimately selected the photo for the cover. "I Chose This Cover Because This Photo Is So Raw… So Authentic.. Not Fabricated.. Suki Can And Will Only Be Suki," he wrote. How he ultimately came across the photo is unknown, but he also credited designer Aris Tatalovich for his role in the cover. Clearly, Yachty and Tatalovich had a good eye because the cover art instantly became a standout in Drake's discography. It's also a perfect, subtle nod to Houston, a city that Drake has been very vocal about his love for throughout his career. —Mike DeStefano
5.For All the Dogs
When: 2023
There's something incredibly wholesome about Drake using a drawing from his son Adonis. Remember how great it was when your parents hung your creations on the fridge? Now imagine it being pinned to an Instagram page with 142 million followers and liked by 3.4 million of them. Now, we aren't here to judge a child's artwork. Unironically, the red-eye grey dog made for one of Drake's most interesting covers to date. It also goes to show that tapping a well-known artist doesn't always guarantee a good outcome. Sometimes you just need to ask a 5-year-old to draw a dog. Shoutout to Adonis for crafting a better cover than an iconic contemporary artist. —Mike DeStefano
4.If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
When: 2015
Perhaps one of the most iconic album covers ever made by Drake was the chicken scratch handwriting that graced If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Although it looked like Drake made the album art himself by just writing the name of his album on a sheet of paper, it was actually conceived by an elusive street artist named Jim Joe. Originally from Montreal, Canada, Jim Joe made a name for himself on the streets of New York in the early 2010s by spray painting his Samo-esque tag with cryptic messages all throughout Downtown Manhattan. His work was eventually recognized by a young Virgil Abloh, who tapped Jim Joe in 2013 to paint graffiti for the video lookbook that launched his debut streetwear endeavor, Pyrex Vision. Shortly after that, Kanye West tapped Jim Joe to make an alternative album cover for Yeezus. Although Jim Joe also collaborated with artists such as Travis Scott, and brands like Cactus Plant Flea Market, the cover Jim Joe made for Drake’s beloved 2015 mixtape remains one of his most famous works to date. Nearly half a decade later, despite collaborating with brands like Louis Vuitton and giving lectures at Harvard, Jim Joe still remains to be one of graffiti’s most enigmatic figures. If they are not poached by prospective street art resellers first, consider yourself lucky if you find one of Jim Joe’s tags on a piece of discarded furniture in New York City today. Drake’s collaboration with a prolific street artist makes this cover one of his best and most memorable pieces of album art. —LT
3.Views
When: 2016
A few days before he officially released the project, Drake dropped the cover art for Views, his fourth studio album, on his Twitter account. It’s an apt cover, showing Drake sitting on the CN Tower, also known as the Canadian National Tower, that’s located in downtown Toronto. The structure, which is 1,815-feet tall, is a broadcast and communications tower that was once the world’s tallest freestanding building until 2007. Locals and tourists can visit the tower to see panoramic views of Toronto.
The photo, which was taken by Canadian photographer Caitlin Cronenberg and art directed by Nicky Orenstein, feels grand and steely. It was probably meant to capture the city of Toronto’s grey winters and how Drake was feeling about himself at the moment. He has a flair for the dramatics and presenting himself as grandiose. Him sitting atop the CN Tower overlooking all of Toronto with his feet dangling over the sides is nothing short of grand. But it turned out that Drake wasn’t actually sitting on the CN Tower. He was photoshopped in. The album cover could have easily worked without Drake in it, but we’re sure he understood how that would play out on the internet. And he was right. It led to various memes and chatter online. People even questioned if it was a stock image. Nevertheless, it is a well composed photograph that perfectly captured what Drake wanted to convey with his album and his persona.—AH
2.Take Care
When: 2011
Before Drake’s massively successful and career-defining sophomore album Take Care even received critical acclaim, he knew that he was at the precipice of rap royalty. Shot in his favorite restaurant in Toronto, Joso’s, the rapper explained to MTV News back in 2011 how the now-iconic cover art captured his toilings with fame as he entered hip-hop’s pantheon of champions.
“That’s who’s sitting on that album cover, that kid that’s just somehow gone from his mom’s basement in Toronto to becoming a king,” he explained. “That’s what that album cover is about and there is a lot of deep thought involved in that ‘cause you can go crazy doing this.”
The cover is simple yet effective. It’s a portrait of The Boy embracing the man he was becoming—golden goblet in hand and an all-seeing owl by his side. While trolls used it as the centerpiece to call him sensitive, the art is the perfect vessel for the introspective cargo it carries. Take Care both looks and sounds like Drake pensively sitting on the riches that have yet to fully arrive, reflecting on the marathon he’s still running but knows he will win. Debatably one of the best albums in his discography, the cover predicts its own fate—a skill that Drake would later become a master of as well. —JR
1.Nothing Was The Same
When: 2013
When It comes to Drake’s legacy, doubters often like to point to the fact that he “doesn’t have a classic album.” A common rebuttal (although it can be easily argued he has a few) is that 2013’s Nothing Was the Same is his true classic. So, it should come as no surprise that this album also gave us his best cover art. The image of baby Drake’s head in the clouds is immediately recognizable. There’s also a secondary cover for the deluxe version that replaces the afro-rocking newborn with an adult Drake, but let’s be honest, the original cover is the better of the two. The cover art came courtesy of Kadir Nelson. The original piece is actually much larger and features both versions of Drake on the same canvas staring at each other. Back in 2013, the New Jersey-born artist told MTV he initially connected with Drake after the rapper took a liking to one of his pieces on display at an LA studio and reached out.
“Drake was looking for something that was iconic, that would be a signature painting of mine,” Nelson told MTV. “So I approached this as if it were something that would have resonance not only for now, but for all time. It’s something that Drake and I both thought would last beyond what you’ll see on most album covers now. We wanted something that was different from everything else.”—MD