Life Is Good

Nas

Def Jam, 2012

http://www.islanddefjam.com/artist/home.aspx?artistID=7312

REVIEW BY: Mark Millan

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/26/2013

Listening to this album a fair bit lately prompted me to try and count the number of “divorce albums” there are in my personal collection. I stopped counting once I hit the big 40. It never seems to amaze me how much material songwriters seem to find when dealing with their broken hearts (and homes). 

Nas has certainly released some stellar work over the years, but his latest offering is the one that I now play the most often and in my mind it ranks as one if his best ever. Life Is Good is album number eleven for the man, and it was born following the break-up of his marriage to Kelis and his desire to make a quick follow-up to his fantastic (comeback album of sorts) release from 2011, my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250 Distant Relatives.

The main reason I love this record so much is that lyrically speaking, it is possibly Nas’ most accomplished and personal work; it ventures across almost every human emotion and also includes some great storytelling. Musically, it is a treasure-trove of classic hip-hop and contemporary R&B tracks, which creates a fitting backdrop to these killer songs and Nas’ awesome performance right throughout the entire disc.

It would be an impossible task to list all of the producers and guest artist who worked on this project because there are just way too many of them, but it’s worth mentioning that everyone involved did great work and contributed to the overall success of this record. On stellar cuts like “No Introduction” and “Queens Story,” we get glimpses of Nas’ childhood in the hood and just how times were for him back then. Rick Ross drops in and helps bring “Accidental Murderers” to life as he relates a story of the all too familiar senseless gangbanging that takes out just as many “innocents” as those involved.

To lighten the mood somewhat, Nas delivers a heartfelt song that reflects on his life as a father of girls and it goes out as a word of warning to his “brothers with daughters.” Other standouts are the smooth R&B of “Reach Out,” which welcomes Mary J. Blige into the house, a class act who rarely ever delivers anything other than quality work. Miguel and Swizz Beatz do their thing on the cool chill-out track “Summer On Smash” and Victoria Monet offers a sweet vocal for the hard-luck tale of “You Wouldn’t Understand.” 

Deep into this fantastic album, we still get killer tracks like the old-school “The Don” and the retro-styled jazz/R&B track “Cherry Wine,” which features a stellar vocal performance from the late Amy Winehouse.

Life Is Good is one of my favorite hip-hop albums ever, it is smart and soulful and powerfully delivered without all of the tired clichés that most rappers just can’t seem to shake.

Rating: A-

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