Bark + Bite

4 Things Kanye and Jay-Z's Watch the Throne album cover looks like

The much-delayed joint album between Jay-Z and Kanye West is inching closer and closer to reality. While we've known about the album title since last year, we're finally getting around to the album cover, and baby, it's solid gold. No, really, that's all the cover is.

If you were one of the million or so folks who bought Kanye's last album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, then you'll notice that this is pretty much a continuation of the gold and royal aesthetic Ye rolled out for that album. Jay-Z must be taking a backseat on the creative art direction for this project because this doesn't seem to have any of his fingerprints.

While the cover certainly looks regal, it has no title, neither of their names and no images of their likenesses on it at all. It basically breaks all the rules of good advertising and marketing, as far as putting across a clear message or an indentifiable brand.

Which got us thinking about how the naked nature of the cover brought to mind other, non-music and music-related people and things. So you know what that means, right? Listicle time!

Reading got Lil' Wayne through his stint in prison

Lil' Wayne makes his post-prison magazine cover debut with a tatted up glossy cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The Young Money boss kind of looks like he sharted on himself in the photo, but maybe it was just a bit of light in his eyes that caused him to grimace like that.

In highlights from the interview, Lil' Wayne spoke in detail about his time behind bars, how it affected him and how he passed the time. Surprisingly? Lil' Wayne got some reading done. Yes, Weezy F. Baby read through the biographies of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Joan Jett, Vince Lombardi and Anthony Kiedis, while in prison. Hopefully he's developed a love for music biographies cause Justin Bieber's is on the way!

Here's a quote of Wayne talking about his reading habits from the RS interview below:

In prison he read biographies of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Joan Jett, Vince Lombardi and Anthony Kiedis. "[Kiedis'] Scar Tissue was really good," he says. "I also read the Bible for the first time. It was deep! I liked the parts where some character was once this, but he ended up being that. Like he'd be dissing Jesus, and then he ends up being a saint. That was cool."

So all you have to do to get a rapper to spend some time reading is throw him in the clank for a few months? Maybe there's hope for Gucci Mane.

Nicki Minaj is a broken doll on the cover of Pink Friday

Look, ma! No hands! Nicki Minaj unveiled the cover for her highly anticipated debut album and it looks like the Young Money rapstress is missing a few limbs. As expected, Nicki's backdrop is dipped in bubblegum pink and her infamous pink wig, which she referenced in "Monster," takes center stage. What do you think of Nicki's album cover? Cool or creepy?

Drake covers TLC in "I Get Lonely Too" from his R&B mixtape

First Aaliyah, now TLC. It seems that Drake has a fondness for the female R&B stars of the '90s. In his new song "I Get Lonely Too," the first offering from his upcoming R&B mixtape It's Never Enough, the Young Money star covers TLC's "Fanmail." The only difference, aside from 40's mood-altering production, is that Drizzy drops the word "fanmail" completely from the song. And dropping that one word turns the song from a futuristic fan tribute into a song about the torture of loneliness. Genius.

Listen to Drake's cover of "Fanmail" below

Rihanna ravishes in red on "Loud" album cover

With those full, red lips and fire engine red hair, Rihanna is channeling some serious Jessica Rabbit. The Bajan pop star avoids looking directly at the camera, instead casting a downward, seductive look. The cover art doesn't really seem to scream anything "loud," other than her noticeably red styling. How do you feel about Riri's new album cover?

Mariah Carey tries to recreate the past with new Christmas album cover

What in the PhotoShop hell is this? Mariah Carey unveiled the cover for her upcoming Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You, which as the "II" indicates is a sequel to her classic Christmas album Merry Christmas. She even dusted off the snug old Santa costume she donned for the first one.

Why is Mimi so stubborn? She got burned recently when she tried to pull off a sequel to her successful comeback album Emancipation of Mimi with the tepid E=MC2. Now she wants to revisit the classic that is her Christmas album?

And really, who needs an updated Christmas album anyway? One holiday album in a pop artist's repretoire is enough. The songs don't age Christmas after Christmas, unless you're foolish enough to date your material like 3LW did with songs like "X-Mas in the Hood."

The worst part of this whole project is that Mimi is going to re-record her Christmas hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You." Only Mariah, diva of all divas, would cover herself. If she dares to attempt a re-do of "Vision of Love" next year, may the music gods sabotage her recording equipment. You can't recreate history, no matter how bad you want the days of yesteryear to return.

Bruno Mars travels down the yellow-brick road in Doo-Wops album cover

Rather than opting for a glossy, BOP!-friendly headshot that would make his lady fans tingle and squeal, Bruno Mars went with something more artistic for his Doo-Wops and Hooligans album cover. The artwork is bathed in yellow, with a small Bruno at the bottom, looking up at the long and winding road he has ahead of him. You're forgiven if thoughts of The Wizard of Oz come to mind.

This is likely an homage to the difficulties Bruno suffered on the long road to success in the music industry. He spoke about his penniless days in L.A. in an interview with EW,"I couldn’t pay rent. I’d always been a working musician in Hawaii and never had problems paying rent. And then it’s like, 'Now I’m in L.A. and my phone’s getting shut off.' That’s when reality hit."

There's nothing an eviction notice or a getting your phone and utilities shut off as far as reality checks go. Somehow that gets people motivated real quick. It's a good thing Bruno seems to be in a much better place these days. His debut album Doo-Wops and Hooligans drops October 5th, but should be available for pre-order on his site today.

Sara Bareilles, this is a crime against Beyonce

There need to be some ground rules set before people go about mucking with the postmodern classic that is Beyonce's "Single Ladies." This song, like James Brown's "Say It Loud — I'm Black and I'm Proud," is a declaration. It is a rallying war cry for single women to take their stand and refuse eternal babymamadom or perpetual live-in girlfriend status. (Shout out to Tiny who finally made it legal with T.I. after all these years) It is not a song meant for mewling or soft-spoken nudges and winks. So why do some white female singers insist on turning this rocking ladies anthem into a subdued coffee shop ditty? It ain't right.

Sara Bareilles covered Beyonce's "Single Ladies" for Billboard's Mashup Mondays and she did unspeakable things to Sasha Fierce. From the onset, Sara said she wanted to completely reinterpret the song. Great. Being a pianist, maybe that means we can get a smashing on the keys, dramatic, raucous piano jam? No. Instead, Sara Bareilles gave us a soft folk-jazz rendition of the song that was sickeningly "pleasant." It was like something out of a dinner theatre that only tone-deaf, senior citizens would attend. And frankly, even they might fall asleep listening to this snoozer.

Watch Sara Bareilles' cover of Beyonce below