Cover Me

   In 1979, The Sugar Hill Gang released Rapper's Delight, the first hip-hop single to break into the top 40. The cover art for the album and the single were both rooted in graffiti.

   Rapper's Delight is widely credited for bringing the hip-hop phenomenon from its insulated community to the masses.

  

 The early album art for most hip-hop records was largely graffiti based, as evidenced here by a legendary Philly emcee, Schooly D...

and by another groundbreaking group, EPMD...

   Since these groups were all marketing their products to urban youths, they understood that the way to get their attention was to market their product with familiar art. This also was one of the ways that graffiti became legitimized; many advertising executives saw the art form as an effective way to target this consumer group.