Whut? Thee Album

Redman's debut album carries a photograph by Timothy Carter, with art direction and design by The Drawing Board, the studio that handled much of the visual identity of Def Jam and its affiliated labels in the early 1990s. The record came out through Rush Associated Labels, Def Jam and Chaos Recordings, a Columbia imprint, with Erick Sermon of EPMD as executive producer. The original vinyl came with a black and white printed inner sleeve carrying credits, a graphic and a photo.

The title tells you what kind of package this is. Whut? reads like a voice from the back of the room, and the spelling of Thee Album is a joke at the expense of serious debut records. Redman arrived from Newark as part of Sermon's Hit Squad, with a reputation for wild humour, horror-movie skits and funk samples, and the cover had to introduce a rapper whose persona was as important as his rhymes. The Drawing Board's design kept the focus on Redman himself, letting Carter's photograph carry the personality.

The album went gold and set up a run of Redman records that leaned further into dark comedy and psychedelic funk. The title format proved durable too: he returned to it in 2007 with Red Gone Wild: Thee Album, and the debut has since been reissued on vinyl. The album was released on 22 September 1992.