Anchored by the brash verbal density of rappers Pharoahe Monch and Prince Poetry (Po), the soulfully jazzy and often dark Stress: The Extinction Agenda has made a lasting aural impression. Praised by then-leading hip hop publication The Source, who described the rappers as “verbal contortionists, creating moving molecules of syllables and sounds,” the album solidified the legacy of these b-boy innovators.

Yet it’s virtually impossible to talk about Organized Konfusion’s genre-busting album without waxing poetic about Matt Reid’s bold mix of graphic design, comic books, collage, sci-fi, animation and surrealism. Sharing rack space beside scores of eye-catching rap covers, including Daniel Hastings’ disturbing cover shots for Gang Starr (Hard to Earn) and Jeru the Damaja (The Sun Rises in the East), the far out beauty of Stress stood out. Before one even listened to the record, Reid’s image served as an introduction to the left-of-center urgency of the group.

“Artwork of this style had not really appeared on a rap album cover before,” Reid told Dangerous Drawings in 1997. “When the cover came out, people said, ‘Oh my God. Who is the artist behind this piece?’ Contemporary rap covers are pretty simplistic. I wanted to break boundaries.” Coming from Queens, New York, the same borough as the Konfusion kids, Matt Reid was an around-the-way boy who had been into comics, rap music and graffiti since he was a small boy. Determined to incorporate the mediums into his visual landscape, he described himself as a “hip hop painter,” who like a producer, “sampled many styles and incorporate them into my art.”

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