Tonight DMX is at House of Blues, on a stop on his current “Rebirth” tour, reacquainting himself with his fans after a few years in the wilderness (jail). There is no doubt that he has a following, mostly us guys who appreciate a screaming, burly rap song with dog references and barking. Shit’s fun.
Back in late 1998, DMX released Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, which featured guest spots from Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, The L.O.X., and Marilyn Manson. Other than the Manson collab, the album is probably best-known for “Slippin’,” which showed a tender and haunted side to Earl Simmons. The cover, with DMX covered in blood, was an anachronism in a scene that saw those garish No Limit album covers and other sweetly ’90s rap motifs.
Of course, it’s probably one of our favorite LP covers, with DMX’s angry, DMX stare and the blood setting it off.
Now for our list of favorite bloody album we covers, we ignored all of the animated ones, because after 30 years of metal, hardcore, and thrash, this blog would run 17 pages and you would only make it to Page 3. Instead we picked out covers featuring real people covered in blood.
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This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2011.