Fear of a Black Planet

For Fear of a Black Planet, Chuck D wanted an image of two worlds: a "Black" planet and Earth, eclipsing one another. To paint it, Public Enemy enlisted B.E. Johnson, an illustrator who had worked for NASA, and the result looks like a frame from a space mission, one planet sliding across the face of the other.

Cey Adams, then creative director at Def Jam, remembered how unusual the choice was: "It was so interesting to me that a black hip-hop act did an illustration for their album cover."

The cosmic picture turns the album's subject, racial fear, into an astronomical event that nothing can stop. Art direction was by The Drawing Board, and the record was released by Def Jam on 10 April 1990.