Kanye West's Cover Art: A Look Back

A retrospective of Yeezy's thought-provoking visuals.

Kanye West, The College Dropout - Kanye West has played an integral part in creating and popularizing an array of styles and images. Among those is the College Dropout bear, a mascot suit that Yeezy wore on his debut album cover. In different forms, a bear would later appear on the covers of his next two albums, Late Registration and Graduation. (Photo: Roc-a-Fella Records, Def Jam)
The Evolution of Kanye West - Kanye went big on his sophomore album, the 2005 classic Late Registration. Working with acclaimed pop-rock producer Jon Brion, Kanye expanded past his chipmunk soul signature sound with lusher live instrumentation and epic bridges, crescendos and breakdowns. Behind hits like "Gold Digger" and "Touch the Sky," the album was Kanye's first to hit No. 1.    (Photo: Courtesy Def Jam Records)
Can't Tell Me Nothing - The cover to Kanye's masterful 2007 mixtape Can't Tell Me Nothing, a prelude to Graduation later that year, was designed by renowned Japanse artist Takashi Murakami, the beginning of a fruitful partnership between the two. It was also the start of Kanye's love affair with neon-bright colors and futuristic, slightly disturbing imagery. Is that Murakami's interpretation of poor Dropout Bear? (Photo: Roc-a-Fella Records, Def Jam)
Kanye Meets Murakami - Yeezy tapped Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami to design the surreal, anime-inspired cover for his 2007 album Graduation. (Photo: Def Jam)Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreak - With Dropout Bear boldly going where no bear's gone before (Pluto, last we saw), Kanye switched things up by once again linking with a prominent contemporary artist, KAWS, who started out as a renowned graffiti writer. It's stark and dramatic, but with an ironic wink in those cartoon gloves, a signature of KAWS' work. (Photo: Roc-a-Fella Records, Def Jam)

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Late Registration - Kanye's sophomore LP, 2005's expansive Late Registration, featured the return of Dropout Bear. He's wide-eyed and smaller. Maybe that's how Kanye felt after the unexpected success of his first album. Or how he would feel a few days after the album's release, when he said "George Bush doesn't care about black people" on live TV. Either way, the Bear's spiffed up uniform and the cover's darker look reflect the more mature, serious subject matter and tone on Late Registration. (Photo: Roc-a-Fella Records, Def Jam)

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