Whole Lotta Red

The Whole Lotta Red cover is designed like a punk fanzine. It pays homage to Slash, the late-1970s Los Angeles fanzine, and specifically to the issue that put David Vanian of the Damned on its cover. Playboi Carti appears in a stark black-and-white photograph with the word "Red" scrawled above his head in blood-red ink.

The text along the side, next to the Parental Advisory label, completes the illusion of a magazine. It reads "Volume One Number One Of Red" and "The Wonderful World of Red/Mayday Issue 12/25," presenting the album as the first issue of a fictional publication from Carti's Opium imprint.

The design was created by Art Dealer. Journalists noted that the album's imagery and merchandise drew on heavy metal aesthetics alongside the punk references of the cover, matching the distorted, aggressive sound of the record. Whole Lotta Red was released on 25 December 2020.