The Needle Drop reviews: Nas - Life Is Good

[prophecypro]

I swear I'll never understand some of yall. Even if the review was completely disagreeable, or out of touch, at least it's well-thought out and this dude put effort into it, corny as he may come off. Just dismissing him based on his appearance or whatever makes you look reactionary and emotional.

Also, a lot of what he says in the vid is worth listening to imo (though I don't agree with his taste in hip-hop at all, usually, and he is ultimately not all that familiar with it.) People are willing to settle for so little these days. For example, Rick Ross' verse on Accident Murderers has absolutely nothing to do with the theme of the rest of the song- it's just some generic, phoned-in trash about the usual drugs, guns, cars, and women. If this kind of carelessly thrown-together shyt is your definition of classic songwriting, then you need to raise your standards imo.

Nas is one of my favorite rappers of all time, and I'll continue to buy every one of his records, but this album is no triumph. He's been plagued by this half-assed concession to generic rap standards his whole career except for Illmatic, and this album contains many of those same concessions.

Honestly, it seems to me like all the usual rap publications have lower standards than ever now. Even the smallest increases in quality or actual creativity are praised like the second coming, and all the generic filler is taken for granted instead of criticized.

My only issue with his review is that it wasn't as detailed and well thought out as his other reviews. He seemed to glance over a few songs and kept it moving.
There's definetly some half-assed concession commercial rap on here but at the same time, with 18 tracks deep...I dont know if it waters it down to just a 3/10 or 4/10.

When you got Nasty, The Don, Daughters, Loco-Motive, Queens Story, Where's the Love (Seriously an underrated record), Black Bond, Back When, Stay, Bye Baby and Roses on there, that's enough ambitious well produced records that balance between being about his adult life and reminiscing about his street days, which to me was the concept of Life is Good.

So I can understand someone saying the sequencing or the insertion of those R&B records being there causing it be a 3 out of 5 star album or a 6/10 or 7/10....but saying its 3 or 4 out of 10 is like saying there's only 3 good songs and the rest was absolute garbage. To me that's just as hyperbole and reckless as XXL saying the album is a XXL (although you'll find me making less of an effort to complain about that )

 

[beenz]

Nas- Life Is Good ALBUM REVIEW - YouTube

This is the last straw with his hip hop reviews. He only likes experimental hip hop. How can he disrespect a legend like Nas?

This reviewer is a clown. He said NAS never goes outside the box or has original concepts. If one thing we know about NAS is that he will do a concept song. Starting back with "I gave u power" on IWW. He also basically said besides illmatic, NAS has no other albums worth listening. I mean at all of this. And if u can't feel "bye baby" u got no soul real talk.

 

[The Real]

My only issue with his review is that it wasn't as detailed and well thought out as his other reviews. He seemed to glance over a few songs and kept it moving.
There's definetly some half-assed concession commercial rap on here but at the same time, with 18 tracks deep...I dont know if it waters it down to just a 3/10 or 4/10.

When you got Nasty, The Don, Daughters, Loco-Motive, Queens Story, Where's the Love (Seriously an underrated record), Black Bond, Back When, Stay, Bye Baby and Roses on there, that's enough ambitious well produced records that balance between being about his adult life and reminiscing about his street days, which to me was the concept of Life is Good.

So I can understand someone saying the sequencing or the insertion of those R&B records being there causing it be a 3 out of 5 star album or a 6/10 or 7/10....but saying its 3 or 4 out of 10 is like saying there's only 3 good songs and the rest was absolute garbage. To me that's just as hyperbole and reckless as XXL saying the album is a XXL (although you'll find me making less of an effort to complain about that )

First, let me clarify- I didn't mean to seem like I cosigned the way he rated the album. I agree that his score was way too low, and there are more than a few good songs on the album.

I generally agree with what you're saying here. I myself would probably put this between a 6 and 7 our of 10. Some of the good tracks are way better than most of the stuff he's released in a long time. I was more trying to counter the tendency some people have expressed in this thread to uncritically praise everything about the album and totally shut themselves off from any legitimate criticism by finding any reason to avoid negative reviews.

 

[beenz]

I never heard of that dude before. But if you are telling me he fell for the Odd Future hype then that tells me all I need to know. Fact he has a black girl probably makes him extra comfortable. At the same time, is anyone surprised that not everyone loves the album? I don't really trust art that gets 100% cosign. I don't mind that rating in hindsight but upfront is basically a bet. For example does anyone still feel MBDTF is the savior of mankind that every critic said it was? I can't remember the last time I played that depressing album.

My sisters husband is white, but that don't mean he has credibility to discuss hip hop in depth. @ a black girlfriend automatically giving dude some kinda credibility.

 

[prophecypro]

First, let me clarify- I didn't mean to seem like I cosigned the way he rated the album. I agree that his score was way too low, and there are more than a few good songs on the album.

I generally agree with what you're saying here. I myself would probably put this between a 6 and 7 our of 10. Some of the good tracks are way better than most of the stuff he's released in a long time. I was more trying to counter the tendency some people have expressed in this thread to uncritically praise everything about the album and totally shut themselves off from any legitimate criticism by finding any reason to avoid negative reviews.

And that's cool and I understand that, I myself think its a solid 4 micer not a drop dead classic either. But I think some of the outrage is mostly over the low rating.
Also he kind of missed with saying Queen's Story sounds like a Disney record. To me that's sounds like an vintage orchestra East Coast records with the horns and the scratches. Not sure what he was hearing.

 

[RenAi!]

i know how lonely it is.

to be a black man and björk's biggest male fan.

I'm ain't dissin, that shyt just came out hilarious.

 

[Mike Otherz]

Art Barr cracks me up. He brings a different needed perspective. I don't agree with him all the time but I'm glad to hear him. Like o said I don't trust reviews that are blind worship. LIG is a great album to me but if there is constructive criticism then fair enough.

 

[DosCadenaz]

nikka,....

dead end hiphop are some toys and the dude in their group is fukking gay, for real.

wtf,..are you saying!!

art barr

i said what i wanted to say

 

[Tetris v2.0]

Its funny how Fantano talks about "longevity" and "relevancy" when 90% of the acts he covers are flavour-of-the-month acts who won't even put out a followup to their 12" or EP or whatever.

He also acted like Jay hasn't released mostly average, forgettable material in his catalog and that his star-power and successes aren't the main reason he's so relevant today

The guy just seems to dislike Nas, so how could he give a legitimate review of him? I don't even know what he expects to get from an artist that's he's been "disappointed" by all these years

 

[The Ruler 09]

This dude has no clue what he's talking about, 98-99 percent of what he's saying is bullshyt.

 

[The Ruler 09]

For real we need better reviewers of Hip Hop, with knowledge and objectivity. That was poor.

 

[The Ruler 09]

3/4 out of 10 is a disgraceful review to me, shows a complete lack of respect for the skill it takes to make an album like this. Lyrically Nas was really on point on this album, obviously what this guy says doesn't matter cause he doesn't have a clue but even so. Personally I'd give the album 8/10 but I can't see how it could be a 6 or less.

 

[feelosofer]

I think the thing with hip-hop as opposed to other genre are that, good hip-hop is extremely subjective. It's based on the personal experiences and the views of the said person. A Black dude from the streets is going to have a different view, than a Black kid from the burbs or a white dude for that matter. People of different ages have different perspectives of what they like or don't like.

I think Nas is a difficult rapper to review because he is a phenomenon if you really get down to it. He has been rapping longer than a lot of posters have been alive, yet not only does he remain relevant but he is still a top rapper in terms of popularity and he fairly well despite the relative lack of publicity in comparison to current rappers of his caliber. But with Illmatic being an unquestioned classic and having hotly debated albums like IWW, HHID and Stillmatic, as well as B-Sides that put to shame most rappers discographies, I think Nas has a standard he can no longer live up to.

I think we as a collective community need to STFU about what we want out of Nas. This was an album that tried to please everyone and succeeded and failed at the same time. I think this is Nas most well balanced album since God's Son, I think the production is very solid and consistent, which I think is the X-Factor, because lyrically, Nas is better than any rapper out and I think he rhymes at an extremely high level at this point in his career, in fact I'll even go as far as to say, Nas hasn't put out a questionable effort lyrically (for the most part) in over a decade. He has commercial tracks, street tracks and everything in between but I also feel that in doing so, the album lacked soul. It's a technically great album but I don't see myself playing this as much as some of his other albums even if it is technically great, but see that's the rub. Nas can't surpass his own hype and expectations.

That being said, still maybe the best album to drop this year so far.

 

[Big Mel]

i think Nas stans get it twisted by actually believing that those of us who don't jock him actually even care about what he does. we don't. that ship sailed looooong ago.


now, that doesn't mean we won't chime in on his albums.


Nas could never make another album and i wouldn't lose a wink of sleep.

 

[Miracle Violence]

He panned it thank fukk

The adoration of this mediocre album is sickening.