Nas - Life Is Good. (2012) This is Nas' ninth and latest album; atleast. Until his Kanye West produced album "Nasir" was announced. This project is a very mature, wise and retrospective Nas. One of my only problems with some of Nas' newer projects were the beat selections, but not here. This project has some of the beet beats since Stillmatic. The Swizz beat produced "Summer On Smash" nearly has radio hit potential. Looking back at the tracklist; the first 5 tracks were near flawless. Great introduction that sets the tone, a nice retrospective 'look where I'm at' type of track "Loco Motive", followed by an undeniable Banger "A Queens Story". I love the incredibly high energy and hungry flow. The very last line on Illmatic is "The Queensbridge lyricist never fails", and that still rings true with this album proving it track 5 "Daughters" is very relatable to myself and probably any father. It's about Nas struggling to raise a perfect daughter and keep her out of trouble without being hypocritical because he wasn't perfect growing up. The album takes a bit of a dip in quality for the 6th, 7th and 8th track. Mostly just because they're somewhat underwhelming and easy to skip. The song " Summer On Smash" is very catchy but i was a little dissapointed. The features didn't add much and even Nas toned down his word play a bit. The album picks right baxk back up with the 9th track though. Nas had me scared for a few tracks. The last few tracks are intensely deep and personal to Nas. "Bye Baby" details his painful divorce. With all the pain Nas has been through, he leaves us with the feeling that he's doing alright overall. There's a line that goes something like "I'll admit I've been rich and famous longer than I've suffered now" Overall i think this is a great project. One or Nas' bests ever. He proves that nearly 2 decades in, he can still spit circles around pretty much any MC. 9/10 FAV TRACKS #LocoMotive #aQueensStory #Daughters #AccidentMurderers #YouWouldntUnderstand #BackWhen #CherryWine #ByeBaby ° ° ° ° ° #NAS #Nasir #Rap #hiphopalbum #hiphop #music #hiphopalbums #hiphop2012 #classichiphop #KidsSeeGhosts #boombap #ye #newyork #illmatic #itwaswritten #kanye (at Moncton, New Brunswick)
