Album Review: Nas - Life Is Good - RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture

On his tenth studio album, Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones, arguably rap’s most gifted voice, has more stories to tell. After going through a heart-wrenching public divorce with Kelis, Nas sounds rejuvenated and crisp. As an artist, he’s been able to channel his pain and use it to fuel his best music in years. Life Is Good is an optimistic view of life’s ever-changing pace and it’s done well, with good production. Nearly twenty years into his career, a slightly older Nas stands on a steeple, confident with his contribution to the hip-hop genre.

“No Introduction” sets the theme of for the rest of the album. Over a classical piano riff, Nas chops up his historic career into 4 minutes and 15 seconds by taking excerpts from his past, mentioning robbing a train at the age of 15 and chilling with the Notorious B.I.G. He revisits his Illmatic days, including both “Nasty” with Salaam Remi and “Loco-motive” co-produced by Large Professor. He matches both tracks with the same rapidfire flows he possessed in his youth. His tenacity is unmatched on “Nasty”: “Pristine in my vintage shades / I’m not in the winters of my life or the beginning stage.”

A couple tracks on the album miss their potential including “Reach Out” featuring songstress Mary J. Blige, retooling the classic “I Love You” she first flipped in ‘95. While Nas’s lyrics are sharp, Mary’s voice shows it’s age, missing the strong soul it had in hip-hop’s golden era. “The Don,” co-produced by the late Heavy D, is an impressive instrumental, however Nas overdoes it, losing the feeling in translation. And the Swizz Beatz and Miguel collaboration “Summer on Smash” fails to get the clubs going.

While those collaborations were misses, “Accident Murderers” with Rick Ross is an exceptional track, and “Where’s the Love” with Cocaine 80’s is just straight dope. On his posthumous collaboration Amy Winehouse, she and Nas live out their rumored love affair over a Salaam Remi production. Nas lends his “Life is Good” perspective while Amy provides an uninhibited chorus. Even after Amy’s untimely death, life still goes on. Her presence on the track speaks volumes about life’s random nature. Missing from this album is Nas’s collaboration between himself and Frank Ocean produced by Hit-Boy that was unfortunately misplaced on his hard drive. One can only imagine now how ill that song could’ve been.

Nas is rapping like he’s still in his 20s. On “Stay,” produced by No I.D., the Queensbridge emcee comfortably slips between a soul sample and soothing horn selection, reflecting on the awkward relationships we keep but don’t necessarily need in our lives. “Maybe niggas can see too much of their failures through a nigga who realer. / I don’t like you near bruh, but I need you to stay.”

While the nostalgic vibe does encapsulate most of the album, Nas’s relationships with his ex-wife and his daughter inspire fresh material. After all, the album cover does picture Nas sitting in reflection, as Kelis’s mint green wedding gown lays in his lap. On “Bye Baby”, he directly talks to Kelis, venting on their faltered relationship and making sense of it all. On “Daughters” he speaks on his perceived karma spitting, “They say the coldest heartbreakers and in the world / God gets us back / He makes us have precious little girls.”

Life Is Good feels like the ending of an 80’s drug dealer’s biopic, flashing through the grandeur moments of life. Although, in Nas’s biopic, the story doesn’t end so harshly. His newfound lease on life offers a rarely celebrated dynamic in hip-hop: a man middling his 30’s, gaining perspective on what’s important. His rich and descriptive stories have become time capsules of a bygone era. Life Is Good, though it does have its missteps, is an essential in Nas’ discography.