Some people on this planet have a hard time coming to the realization that they are a sidekick and not a protagonist. They simply are not built to have their own story; they're okay, but if they ever tried to rock a big deal production, it would never be Billboard quality, or kingpin status. The work that they execute won’t be unmemorable, forgettable or unworthy of our time, it just doesn’t get played out. It resides in this unique category where it just sits there for those select few who get it and collects hate from everyone else. With that lede in mind, Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones aka Nas, has put out a new album, Life Is Good and most of you may never listen to it. What’s holding you back? The words from the haters? Your own hate? Have you left hip hop for EDM? Or do you just feel the man who has moved from record label to record label more times in his lifetime than I have had eaten ice cream in my life is getting stale? You're entitled to your opinion but, if you walk in to Life Is Good with hate, all you are going to hear is what your mind wants to hear. Nas has been with me since the youth of my love of hip hop and he’ll always hold a special place in my iTunes collection. In all honesty, he’s one of the last players left giving us true hip hop. Even the man with his biggest beef, Jay-z, has sampled EDM and made the jump.
Look kids, Nas is all we have left and I hope you see this too.
“No Introduction” Is what what the beginning of this record says it isn’t. It is the welcoming sounds of light piano, drums and a crowd cheer for a man that’s been with us for over two decades of hip hop. He starts the album with the Cliff's Notes to his life; started starving, hungry and then dated descriptions of rags to riches.
“Loco-Motive” brings us the sounds of a relatively distant train, an old school beat and a hookless track. This is the gritty part of Nas that I love. You can almost taste the new man he’s become, dropping about how he’s been rich longer than he’s been poor and how he still bumps Slick Rick.
“A Queens Story” This entire album is unadulterated hip hop and the story this track puts out is heavy. The transitions he’s made over twenty years have been too much for any man, “Where them nigga’s I shouted out on my first shit?” Hard to hear that when you too, grew up with loyalty. The venting on this track hits home and hard.
“Accident Murderers” The piano and sweet vocals of this track sing to the soul for me. The beginning drop just rocks you to open your eyes even if you think they are already open. Nas’ fast words just fly by to the point that you don’t even care what the words are. But when you concentrate, you hear both Nas and Rick Ross just dropping how there are those who actually kill people, and those who just do it by accident and brag about it.
“Daughters” Is by far the top track of the album. Where’s the real hip hop you ask? Here it is. Sure we got Eminem going hard elsewhere, but hip hop is about walking with us through the hard times of our life. How many hip hop tracks do you know where a man sings about taking care of a daughter for her whole childhood. What about those who have a hip hop past like Nas? “They say the coolest playas and foulest heart breakers in the world, God gets us back, he makes us have precious little girls”
“Reach Out” features Mary J. Blige. I personally have not heard from her in a while, or at least it hasn't been memorable. She’s got a great voice, but I just feel so disconnected from her these days. The track has great vocals, but there is a big disconnect from the hook and the verses for me on this one. Mary’s talking about love while Nas is talking about how you need to make it in the world.
“World's An Addiction” has Anthony Hamilton as the hook and the intro. Honestly? Anthony can really talk about whatever the hell he wants and I’ll listen to it. Unfortunately, the track is about addiction and you don’t really want to smile and have a good time to a track when they’re talking about how fucked up the world is.
“Summer On Smash” is the track that I’d rock to in a club. The only problem is that this has to be a hip hop club; it’s a heavy track. We don’t get this many words in music anymore. Deep and heavy lyrical club tracks that have lines that we relate too and some we can’t even follow. Not that I don’t have the intelligence for this track. But right here’s why I don’t see this album killing on Billboard. Compare this song to anything by LMFAO and then compare the number of sales for the albums. Miguel and Swizz Beatz really amp up the album on this track and I really dig it. I hope to god they play this in the clubs just to see how the kids of today will react.
“You Wouldn't Understand” is the city shout out introduction which makes me smile. What happened to hip hop? No one wants to be proud of being in the hood anymore. We’ve got so much young money in hip hop that we don’t see things like this anymore. The vocals from Victoria Monet married with the disco vibe of the beat, I just can’t help but bump my head like I went back to the Nineties, rolling deep with the homeboys with the sunroof back in my car worth less than the watch I wear today. Speaking of reminiscing….
“Back When” brings us back to the beginning that Nas has gone through. This man had sessions with the roots and the biggest of hip hop. You can talk about the fact that he beefed with Jay-Z, but this man’s goes back enough to be dissed on Makaveli. This puts Nas on an equal feel to one of the greatest names of hip-hop by the man himself. “To call them fake today is hate, real niggas extinct, Pac left me inside a rap world with niggas that's weak.”
“The Don” is our heavy bass track of the album. I am digging it. This is the track to roll hard to, lift weights and just grind it out at whatever you’re doing. The bold tracks and confidence that Nas spits on this track will help you deliver whatever you’re doing and push you to be greater. The rasta touch of the beat an vocals in the back help you push it, and the change up moments just remind you of what hip hop today should be.
“Stay” delivers us a smooth vibe to relax on a glass of poison after work or writing that paper for class. We all grind a hard life, and if you bleed hip hope you know that this is the type of track to kick back and vibe on. The beef you have with others and the decisions of heavy moments of loving and hating someone at the same time.
“Cherry Wine” is hosted by a dead lady. Heavy on the fact that we’re just rocking out to a person that is no longer with us, Amy Winehouse. It’ll make you wonder what we’re missing out on today. Nas’ description of a great catch in a girl on this track is almost too immaculate to exist. We all pray to have someone like this and if you’re still waiting; here’s your theme song.
“Bye Baby” is the divorced people track. The man who no longer is married and feels free from the release can sway to these words and relate to every single word. From the happy years to the good times to the tattoos to the end, the song captures the entire timeline of a bad marriage. This is the type of song you hate to love. Knowing that the divorce rate is so high, this song will probably resonate with more people than you’d like to imagine.
“Nasty” is Nas’ first name and this track won’t let you forget it. First time I heard this track I got chills when the beat dropped. This track is Nasty Nas and he rips the shit out of this one. This song is pure, unadulterated hip-hop and there is nothing you can do to deny it. From the fast words, drops, ghetto beats and sounds of yelling/fighting in the background a hip-hop-head will feel at home right here.
“The Black Bond” has an almost Wu-Tang feel on the beat and the dark words included make you want to spark up a blunt and pop in headphones to travel to another time and place. The straight nasty sounds of the bass and soft vocals intertwined at the end leave you wanting to back and repeat the track over and over. The alpha-male of the vocals just kills me on this track. It’s a problem. Starting with a girl who just can’t cut it in a rich man’s world to how he can rock those duffle bags with that, “Fuck you cash.” I’ll be honest; I couldn’t listen to this track only four times the first time I heard it.
By the time “Roses” rolls around, you have to realize that you've got an album with over ten tracks. At nearly double the average of what we see in albums today, you’ll be surprised at how good the album continues to deliver. The piano of this track reminds you, once again, that Nas is a musical artist. The whole album delivers different sounds but remains connected to the roots of its soulful background.
“Where's The Love” arrives and your smile may fade knowing it’s the last track of the album. Eighteen tracks later you feel your dollars are well spent getting pure music of hip hop. Sure Nas is talking about ladies and balling and all that, but his fast paced words just feel right. A touch of hood, a touch of rich, and a fist-full of history, you feel fully beat-down with a great album. The hooks from Cocaine 80s sing you away to the point you need it to be.
After this review I feel like I just hit on a Victoria's Secret model and she responded well. It’s a good feeling to know you’ve got something good under your belt. Even though you’ll have to share this album with the world unlike the super-model moment; know that you won’t be sharing it with society today. They’re stuck on tracks that repeat the same line forty times on a track and just rock to the same beat through an entire track without a change up. What’s the take away for this album? Know that you’re purchasing one of the last, greatest, hip hop albums that we’re ever going to get. After this I feel like hip-hop is just a part of music’s history.
Artist:
www.nasirjones.com/
www.myspace.com/nas
www.facebook.com/Nas
www.twitter.com/Nas/
Album:
Life Is Good is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
