The Sun Rises in the East

The cover of The Sun Rises in the East combines a photograph and a painting. Jeru the Damaja sits at the ready in the foreground while the Manhattan skyline burns in red and orange behind him, the World Trade Center in flames and the Statue of Liberty floating in the river. The art director and photographer Danny Hastings shot Jeru, then brought in the illustrator Hugo Bravo. "Danny said he wanted to combine an illustration with his photo for the cover," Bravo recalled. Bravo painted the city in oil on illustration board.

Hastings took his starting point from the film Escape from New York, with its ruined Manhattan, and the metaphor was simple: Jeru would beat every rival in a rap battle and be the last man standing. Bravo based the details on a line about the World Trade Center in "Come Clean". His first pen sketch went further, with the South Street Seaport burning and the Brooklyn Bridge collapsed. Hastings showed the concept to Jeru and his team, and Bravo got the go-ahead to paint.

The album arrived one year after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Sotheby's later called the image "a bold and foreboding choice for an album cover." Seen after September 2001, it carries a weight nobody intended. Bravo's painting, sketch and Hastings's signed print were later offered at a Sotheby's hip-hop sale. The album was released on 24 May 1994.