Nas - Life Is Good - The Cool Black Review

This review is gonna be short and sweet. 

This is what I tweeted after listening to the album for three days.

After being on repeat since I 1st listened on Sunday I can say @nas #LifeIsGood is THE TRUTH! NEW YORK HIPHOP IS BACK BABY! #NaS
— Dankwa Brooks (@DankwaBrooks) July 24, 2012

From XXL magazine

Carl Chery of XXL gave the album an "XXL" rating, the publication's maximum rating, and dubbed it "arguably Nas' best LP since Stillmatic", writing that "At this juncture—21 years and 10 solo albums in—no other MC has ever rhymed at such a high level this deep into their career. Not Rakim. Not Kool G Rap. Not Slick Rick. Not Big Daddy Kane. Not L.L. Cool J. No One." XXL, July 18, 2012.

When I read that quote I thought about it and...yeah, I agree. 

I tweeted "New York HipHop is back" because it has a "New York sound" to it through the beats and of course the lyrics. I've always liked Nas' mic skills, and liked some of his records, but I wouldn't call myself  a "fan", but dude is the truth and so is this album. I usually break down what are the best tracks, but that's fruitless this album is a classic and you should just listen to the whole thing.

ADDENDUM

August 23, 2012

Life is Good is clearly my favorite album this year and because of that I downloaded the Deluxe Edition Bonus tracks, four tracks I didn’t from the version I downloaded.

For the record below are the tracks I reviewed above.

1. "No Introduction"    

2. "Loco-Motive" (featuring Large Professor)   

3. "A Queens Story"    

4. "Accident Murderers" (featuring Rick Ross)

5. "Daughters"             

6. "Reach Out" (featuring Mary J. Blige)           

7. "World's an Addiction" (featuring Anthony Hamilton)

8. "Summer on Smash" (featuring Miguel and Swizz Beatz)       

9. "You Wouldn't Understand" (featuring Victoria Monet)         

10. "Back When"         

11. "The Don"             

12. "Stay"        

13. "Cherry Wine" (featuring Amy Winehouse) 

14. "Bye Baby" 

15. "Trust" 

Those 15 tracks above is the perfect album. The Bonus Tracks are cool, the hottest of which is “Nasty” with its real cool old school vibe and fierce rhyming to match."The Black Bond" has a fun spy “James Bond” vibe to it and "Where's the Love" has a cool vibe with a dreamlike hook. While cool tracks they aren’t really missed in the album above. Below are all four Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks   

"Nasty"            

"The Black Bond"        

"Roses"           

"Where's the Love" (featuring Cocaine 80s)       

ADDENDUM 2

November 23, 2012
"Where's the Love" (featuring Cocaine 80s) has really grown on me and I can see it fitting with the hottest of the Bonus Tracks. The dreamlike hook with Cocaine 80s grows on you.

External Link

At Wikipedia Nas - Life Is Good