Power

Glen E. Friedman, the photographer behind classic skateboarding and punk images, shot the cover of Ice-T's second album against a plain white backdrop. Ice-T stands in the middle with DJ Evil E, and beside them is Darlene Ortiz, his girlfriend, in a white cut-out swimsuit and red pumps, holding a shotgun. Kav DeLuxe set the title in huge gold block letters across the bottom.

The styling was Ice-T's idea. He chose the swimsuit, the shoes and the earrings, and Ortiz went out and bought five swimsuits for the shoot. She later said she felt a woman holding a gun made "a powerful statement," a woman standing armed and equal beside the men.

Critics read it differently. Reviewers at the Chicago Sun-Times and the Sydney Morning Herald attacked the sleeve as violence-glorifying and demeaning to women, and the debate made the image famous. By 1989 the Los Angeles Daily News noted that Ortiz had become as much a part of Ice-T's public image as gangs, guns and boom boxes. Sire released the album on 13 September 1988.