The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory

Death Row's Suge Knight introduced Tupac to Ronald "Riskie" Brent, a Compton artist known as Riskie Forever. After looking through his portfolio, Tupac asked him to paint the next album cover and told him he wanted to be shown on a cross.

Brent's painting draws on Renaissance images of the crucifixion. Tupac hangs alone with his head tilted and a wound in his side, a bandana over his head and barbed wire around his hands and feet. A map on the cross links cities with large African-American populations, and light breaks through cracks in the wood that may stand for bullet holes. Near the bottom runs a disclaimer: "In no way is this portrait an expression of disrespect for Jesus Christ." It is signed Makaveli.

The image has been read as Tupac's sense of being vilified by the media and his enemies, and its meaning darkened with events. Tupac died in September 1996, and the album, recorded under the name Makaveli, was released two months later, on 5 November 1996.