The cover of PUSHA T's new album, DAYTONA, showed up on my phone for the first time on Friday

—on my SONOS app as the song "INFRARED" came up on shuffle—and my immediate thought was it’s a fantastic album cover. Noticeably great album artwork is rare these days, if only for the fact that there are so few opportunities to actually see it. The voyeuristic photo of a disheveled bathroom sink, framed almost too perfectly by what looks like pink, gray and black oxidation, could be a painting of a domestic nightmare. It's horrifyingly beautiful, deeply evocative and, not incidentally, of a piece with the lyrical themes on "Daytona." It's also, as anyone who's been paying attention knows, horrifyingly real. It's WHITNEY HOUSTON's bathroom, overrun by drugs and drug paraphernalia. It presumably was shot by someone close enough to Houston to have access to the bathroom and distant enough to betray her confidence. The NATIONAL ENQUIRER published it in 2006, with a cover story about Houston's "Drug Den." KANYE WEST, executive producer of the Pusha T album, licensed it for $85,000 (it's not clear from whom) and made a last-minute decision to use it as the cover. Is a public figure's private space fair game for public display? Is it a little more fair if it's already been seen in a newspaper? But what if that newspaper is a lurid tabloid that neither had, nor sought, the subject's permission? And what if the use is commercial—to sell another artist's work, say? Is it valid cultural commentary or gross invasion of privacy? Provocative remix or crass repurposing? What if it was a black-and-white photo taken 100 years ago, and all close friends and relatives are long gone? What if it was taken last week in the bathroom of someone who's still with us? What if it was Kanye's drug-filled bathroom, and it was being used as a RHYMEFEST album cover? How strong is Kanye's irony meter these days? We know his aesthetic game remains strong, but what about his empathy game? Where are we drawing the lines these days? Where should we be?... Whitney Houston family pro/con: Nephew says OK. Cousin says not OK... BTS is the first K-pop group to top the BILLBOARD 200... There are two BELLYs and they don't care... RIP STEWART LUPTON, ROGER CLARK and PHIL EMMANUEL.