10 Fascinating True Stories Behind Iconic Music Album Covers
8. Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A. (1988)
The low budget debut that changed hip hop forever, N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton has become both one of the most celebrated and controversial album covers of all time. The now legendary cover of the 1988 album curiously came out entirely by accident according to the sleeve's photographer Eric Poppleton. A freelancer at the time fresh out of college, Poppleton was chosen to shoot N.W.A. despite knowing nothing about rap music at the time.
On a stroll through various alleyways in Los Angeles along with Poppleton and art director Kevin Hossman, the group were posing for photos and trying to come up with ideas. Suddenly Eric had an idea to shoot the group from another perspective, and laid on the ground to take a photo. Eazy-E then pulled out and posed with a gun pointing it directly at the camera, before Poppleton took the photo, birthing the now iconic and controversial cover.
To this day, Eric Poppleton still has no idea whether Eazy-E's gun was loaded during the shoot, but is sure the gun was real due to the low budget and improvised nature of the photo shoot.