The magazine cover features a close-up photo of rapper Ice Cube with an aggressive expression, framed by a dark background and half-covered with a red transparent text box. This is an artistic design choice meant to portray the serious, angry, and aggressive nature of Ice Cube's rap music and highlight the dark side of hip-hop. Additional design elements like abbreviating the magazine's logo and placing the name at the bottom are intended to attract the audience's attention solely to the image rather than text or masthead.