Life is Good is Great
We all heard Illmatic. It’s one of our favorite albums ever. It was the album that defined East Coast Rap and captured the genesis of one of the greatest lyricists in all of music. If you knew New York, you knew Illmatic. Unfortunately in the eyes of his critics, Nas never regained the hype that he achieved following his debut. Despite generally positive reviews for his sophomore follow-up It Was Written and his fifth project Stillmatic, the golden era of Nas encompassed little more than his monstrous first album. By 2009, it seemed that the former contender for Biggie’s throne had his best years behind him.
In 2012 after a series of personal issues and setbacks, Nas released Life Is Good, his tenth studio album since 1994. Reflecting on his lengthy rap career, fatherhood, tax problems, and his impending divorce, Nas gave us an emotional outpour that most rappers won’t, or can’t, even try. The results were astonishing. Critics raved and albums sold. Grammys and year-end celebration lists recognized real. Old fans reconvened and new fans arose, and it seemed like both groups were here to stay. In the Summer of 2018, Nas released Nasir, one of five projects to be executively produced by Kanye West during his Wyoming Sessions. Despite high expectations, the seven-track album faced mixed reviews and a subpar commercial performance following its release. In a review for Rolling Stone, Paul Thompson named it “among the weakest Nas albums”, only rarely ever showing a flash of brilliance [1].
Nas may have rode a wave of highs and lows throughout his career, but that shouldn’t convince rap fans that he has lost his potential. In recording Life Is Good, Nas proved he neither exhausted nor abandoned his rap style on Illmatic, but instead adapted it, bringing techniques and facets of rap’s past and customizing them according to the developments of rap’s present. The jazzy sax of “Stay” is reminiscent of Olu Dara’s skillful playing at the conclusion of “Life’s a Bitch”. The city bustle, hard piano, and masterful contributions by Large Professor and No I.D. on Loco-Motive all echo the “N.Y. State of Mind”. Nas is well aware that rap has changed since 1994, and he has little issue evolving with the times when he addresses his family life on “Daughters”, a rare topic for rappers in 1994. Effectively, Life Is Good is a demonstration that Nas is always able to deliver regardless of style, speed of delivery, or the ever-changing status of hip hop, giving us “the most beautiful, dramatic and heavy moments” of his life in 2012 [2].
Maybe Nas has hit a pitfall in 2018, but that pitfall is far from his first and almost definitely not his last. I will admit that consistency is an important trait in analyzing an artist’s career, but how many rappers have careers as long as Nas? In ably surviving decades and generations and proving us wrong as soon as we start to doubt him, Nas demonstrates that he is hardly a shell of Illmatic and always capable of releasing music of XXL quality [3]. If you think he is on the way down, consider him to be an album closer back to the top. If you don’t believe me, why not give Life Is Good a listen?
[1] https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/nasir-is-the-one-thing-the-rapper-has-never-been-before-dull-666036/
[2]https://www.webcitation.org/6B1mbDOKSurl=http://m.billboard.com/entry/view/id/45114KSID%3D11c4faa0c126585527a06af69227d0e3%26ints_viewed%3D1
[3] http://www.xxlmag.com/rap-music/reviews/2012/07/nas-life-is-good/