Nas wears the multiple hats of ladies man, urban griot and voice of the people, fine tuning these roles to near perfection on “Life Is Good.”
Nearing two decades in the game, Nas is embraced with high esteem, as his mere presence demands attention given his innate knack for leadership coupled with unrelenting lyricism. We’ve watched from the sidelines as Nas achieved a lot: obvious career highlights include his prolific debut with 1994’s Illmatic, the boldly titled 2006 release of Hip Hop Is Dead, and the gall which once found him at odds with dominant New York City radio entity Hot 97 after a legendary battle with Jay-Z. Faced with lofty critical expectations, Life Is Good is an up close and personal tenth release from Nas.
Regularly praised for his versatility, Nas wears the multiple hats of ladies man, urban griot and voice of the people, fine tuning these roles to near perfection on Life Is Good. Having traveled various confusing paths over the years causing detractors to charge him with coasting off of early accolades, this album lends serious credence to the notion that he holds a fixed seat in Rap royalty dating back to the golden age. While always introspective, Nas boldly chooses to discuss a topic on tracks that has been under intense public scrutiny. The song Bye Baby is an open letter to his ex-wife Kelis that gracefully comes to grips with the permanent ending to their marriage. The tracklist also include Cherry Wine featuring the late Amy Winehouse.
The biggest disconnect on Life Is Good lies in Nas’ ability to couple his strong lyrics and discussion topics with well-rounded songs. While clever wordplay and social commentary are strong suits, they tend to take a front seat to a complete composition. In a world where the value of a song outweighs the value of the words it contains, this can pose a problem to even the strongest career – including a living legend. Still, Nas carries the torch for what many artists today are lacking, and in continuing to do so will always have that lane primarily clear. It’s one he mastered at the onset of his career and doesn’t appear to be surrendering any time soon.
Life Is Good is a dual relief for Nas and his supporters as its title lends itself to interpretation as a reconciled statement to gossip obsessed tabloids. The weight lifted from his shoulders has provided with him a reinvigorated energy unifying the masses, rectifying the ongoing harsh criticism of his poor beat selection and strengthening the case for his importance throughout Hip Hop’s folklore.
Tracklist:
1. No Introduction
2. Loco-Motive feat. Large Professor
3. A Queens Story
4. Accident Murderers feat. Rick Ross
5. Daughters
6. Reach Out feat. Mary J. Blige
7. World’s An Addiction feat. Anthony Hamilton
8. Summer On Smash feat. Miguel & Swizz Beatz
9. You Wouldn’t Understand feat. Victoria Monet
10. Back When
11. The Don
12. Stay
13. Cherry Wine feat. Amy Winehouse
14. Bye Baby
Bonus Tracks for Deluxe Edition:
15. Nasty
16. The Black Bond
17. Roses
18. Where’s The Love feat. Cocaine 80s (Agencies)