Long Live the Kane

Big Daddy Kane sits like a king on the cover of his debut, in a rich purple setting, surrounded by women in white dresses who feed him grapes. The image is part Roman emperor, part soul-era lover man, with Kane's name in gold letters at the top.

Kane, from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, was the smoothest and fastest rapper of the Juice Crew, and Long Live the Kane, produced by Marley Marl and released on 21 June 1988, showed it off on songs like "Ain't No Half-Steppin'" and "Raw." His mix of speed, wordplay and charm set a standard for golden age lyricists.

The cover sold the persona as much as the music. Kane presented himself as a romantic, regal figure at a time when rap covers were mostly street photographs, and the grapes-and-servants image has been parodied and paid homage to ever since as a symbol of rap's swaggering golden age.