Midnight Marauders - Cover Art

Cover Art

Widely respected and admired for their success and artistry throughout the hip hop scene, and preternaturally inclined to accept this adulation with grace and humility, the group elected to summon fellow hip hoppers whose work as artists and actions as human beings they respected, and photographed headshots of each for arrangement on the album's cover and liner-notes insert. And like The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it serves as a time capsule of the era; a who's who of hip hop circa 1993.

According to ego trip's Book of Rap Lists, there are a reported 71 different hip hop luminaries and radio DJ's who adorned Midnight Marauders. The cover was issued in three different color schemes- red, black, and green (with black being the rarest). The book goes into detail as to which artists were on which particular album cover using a number scheme to easily identify each artist. The complete list of artists is as follows:

• Afrika Bambaataa
• AMG
• Ant Banks
• Awesome Two
• Beastie Boys (Mike D, Adrock, MCA)
• Black Moon
• Busta Rhymes
• Casual
• Chi Ali
• Chuck D
• The Cold Crush Brothers (Almighty KG, Charlie Chase, Easy AD, Grandmaster Caz, DJ Tony Tone)
• Daddy-O (of Stetsasonic)
• Dallas Austin
• Del Tha Funkee Homosapien
• Diamond D
• Doug E. Fresh
• De La Soul (Posdnuos, Dave & Mase)
• DJ Jazzy Joyce
• Kool DJ Red Alert
• DJ Ron G
• DJ Silver D
• Dr. Dre
• Grandmaster Flash
• Heavy D
• Ice-T
• Jazzy Jay
• Jungle Brothers (Afrika Baby Bam, Mike G)
• DJ Kid Capri
• Kool Moe Dee
• Large Professor
• Lords of the Underground
• MC Lyte
• MC Serch
• Neek the Exotic
• Organized Konfusion
• The Pharcyde (Fat Lip, Imani, Romye, Slim Kid Tre')
• Pete Nice
• Rashad Smith
• Rock Steady Crew (Crazy Legs, Mr. Wiggles, Pee Wee Dance, Ruel)
• Sean Combs
• Skeff Anselm
• Souls of Mischief
• Special Ed
• Sweet Tee
• Too Short
• Whodini (Grandmaster Dee)
• Zulu Nation Supreme Council (Zulu King Muhammad, Unknown)

The album artwork of Midnight Marauders was the source of inspiration for a collection of products released by the Air Jordan Brand that includes t-shirts and sneakers and was released February 2009. The sneakers, officially called Air Jordan I Retro High Strap, were often called Midnight Marauders Air Jordan I or A Tribe Called Quest Air Jordan I by customers and featured a design of red, green and black. Two of the t-shirt designs include a wing design and a design mimicking the album cover of Midnight Marauders.

It also served as inspiration for a t-shirt by Munich-based clothing company Beastin', showing the members of the original 1992 Dream Team arranged in the same way as on the Midnight Marauders cover.