Alright, it’s time to get out of the ’70s for a bit on this series and get a little more current. As in almost to the 21st century.

I’m not usually a fan of using historical photographs on album covers, but this one - from the Roots’ classic 1999 album Things Fall Apart - is just so striking. The image was taken in the 1960s as riot police in Bedford-Stuyvesant chased down two black teens. And although the album title actually comes from a 1958 novel, it is brutally appropriate given the cover image.






