This album still slightly outranks GKMC as my top album of the year, Nas most definitely came through lyrically, conceptually, and musically on this album. Truly a complete body of work as he set out to make it. You can hear and
feel the passion he has for Hip Hop on No Introduction, as he takes you through the mind state of a project child struggling to eat, to a teenager who has to decide which path he's going to take to achieve a better life. "A Hustler's Job ain't done/till he becomes a King" is one of the more striking and poignant bars on the song because, truthfully, it is relatable to every black male who has ever faced adversity or challenge in attempting to make better for themselves, to achieve that piece of the pie, to carve out THIER vision of the American Dream. I personally never grew up a child of the projects, I was fortunate to have a mother and father who worked to provide, but I remember periods where things weren't going so well, where we struggled to make ends meet. I remember what it's like to experience hunger, to experience embarrassment because I had holes in my Payless shoes when the other kids were rocking Jordan's. I remember what it's like to have the desire to make something BETTER of my current situation.
Now I listen to Nas and I think about how he weaves his tales of his own personal struggles into such powerful music as to make it a universal theme of overcoming ones own challenges, tribulations, and faults. "Well I am a graphic classic song composer" he spits on the final verse and indeed it is proven that Nas is a true maestro of the art.
His appreciation and respect for the culture of Hip Hop is demonstrated on every single song on the album. More than a way to get closure from his divorce, or to clarify the comings and goings of his personal life, Life is Good listens like a love letter to Hip Hop itself. If in 2006 Nas was so dissapointed and disillusioned with the state of the culture the he declared it dead, on this album he is truly joyful, thankful, and sincerely appreciative of its resurrection. Perhaps with dealing with so much loss (divorce, custody issues with seeing his newborn son, the death of friend Amy Whinehouse) he was able to find a peace and solace with the music that he had forgotten ( he never, in my opinion lost the passion or the skill) but there is a certain sense of renewed optimism on this album. Even on a song like Bye Baby, which easily could have been the most bitter, angry, and venomous track on the album, Nas ends the song with a renewed faith that he WILL find love and happiness; "Watch me do it all again it's a beautiful life".
Life is Good is the best Hip Hop album of the year, not because Nas delivered a great album. Distant Relatives and Untitled were both great albums. Life Is Good is the AOTY because Nas broke ground in an avenue of life that's
RARELY tackled in mainstream hip hop, what it means to be a MAN. Not the PERFECT man, not the man who gets all the women all the time or the man who has no problems in life outside of which strip club to party at or which piece of jewelry to flaunt; but the man who has struggled, the man who has succeeded, the man who does right in the same breath that he does wrong. The man who recognizes that his thirst for women has in effect had a negative correlation to the relationship with his own daughter. The man who continually strives to be better than his own flaws, sometimes transcending them, sometimes falling victim to them, but never giving up.
THIS album is the blueprint for rappers entering their 40's on how stay "relevant" with the times, which isn't hopping on the latest trends, getting the hot artist of the moment on your single, or the hottest producer of the moment to make you a top 40 hit. THIS is the exact opposite of "Hip Hop retirement", this is the new fountain of youth. This is being comfortable in your OWN skin. To make the music that your audience can GROW with you on. Nas doesn't need 12-17 year old kids (who will most likely download a song or two for free and then forget about the music in a week) to be relevant. He needs the fanbase that appreciates and supports the CULTURE enough to recognize the importance of what he is saying. Every avenue of our existence will be met with some kind of tragedy at some point, and through it all, through the challenge and pain if you can come through it with a lesson learned and your head held high
Then Life Is Good
I've never seen this gawdliness 
