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Oftentimes, the challenge for the established Hip-Hop act is remaining relevant amongst a peer group of hungry young rhymers in their twenties. The greater challenge, however, is proving that his once-revered stamp of authority wasn't been lost whilst he pursued a career far beyond his expectations.
Fortunately for Nasir "
Nas" Jones, his aura of an empowering, Mario Puzo-like storytelling wizard has been far from compromised, even during his most difficult period both as an artist and a man.
Facing a highly-publicised and costly divorce whilst seeing a dozen new emcees rise in the ranks, Nas, considerably at a low point, decided on naming his tenth studio album
Life Is Good -- a title many saw as a tongue-in-cheek stab at his obvious problems and worries. But to discredit an emcee who (arguably) verbally disposed of one of Hip-Hop's all-time greats, remained conscious in the face of commercialism, and created rap music's great body of work with
Illmatic would be a grave mistake.
Life Is Good finds the Street's Disciple returning to the booth with new scars and emotions to express; the question, however, is whether the end result is artistic genius or merely a tacky soap opera.
Let’s not get it twisted, Slaughterhouse is the squad. Flipmode may have said it but Slaughterhouse are it.
A deadly foursome, consisting of Joell Ortiz, Crooked I, Joe Budden and of course Royce Da 5’9, are all names not to be scoffed at as far as lyrical prowess is concerned. Successful entities within their own right, now a collective they are signed to Eminem’s Shady Records imprint, and the time has come for the underground to go overground.
It's sometimes difficult when you’ve followed someone from the beginning of their career to accept when they give you something different. But if we can all grow and change, why can’t they? Artists have to be two steps ahead of us, so with every album they release we’re supposed to be two steps behind - and that's pretty much what happened with this album. No one was expecting what Beyoncé came out with, partly due to the fact that the lead single ‘Who Run The World (Girls)’ was so misleading. So when a barrage of ballads was powerfully belted into our ears the majority were shocked, many disappointed (myself included, at first).
