The Black Bond (Produced by Salaam Remi)ДЎ8. Bye Baby (Produced by Salaam Remi & 40)ДЎ6. Amy Winehouse (Produced by Salaam Remi)ДЎ4. The Don (Produced by Salaam Remi, Heavy D & Da Internz)ДЎ3. Miguel & Swizz Beatz (Produced by Swizz Beatz)Д©. Anthony Hamilton (Produced by Salaam Remi)ДЁ. Blige (Produced by Salaam Remi, Rodney Jerkins, DJ Hot Day & Nas)Д§. A Queens Story (Produced by Salaam Remi)Д¤. No Introduction (Produced by Justice League)Дў. Now turn the case over and check the tracklist.Nas has revealed the official tracklist to his upcoming album вЂњLife Is GoodвЂќ which will be released July 17th.ДЎ. You see his eyes- filtered through a repeated transcription of 'If I Ruled the World''s third verse on the cover, glancing over a skull-print bandana in the tray, peering wearily through his fingers in a photo recycled from the sleeve to the 'Life's a Bitch' single- but you never get a complete portrait. But look at the cover, open the case, take out the CD, leaf through the booklet: You don't see Nas' entire face anywhere in the art for Greatest Hits. And going strictly by how good every song on this collection is and nothing else, yeah, it's technically an excellent record. Greatest Hits is still a decent appraisal of Nas' artistic shifts and the risks he's taken in the last decade, with a second half that's as compelling as it is stylistically restless- the money-stacks bombast and unhinged fury of 'Hate Me Now' into the introspective slow-burn intensity of 'One Mic' the hardcore shot-busting swagger of 'Made You Look' into the classicist teach-the-seeds Afrocentrism of 'I Can'. The other newish cut, the Rush Hour 3 soundtrack fodder/Cee-lo showcase 'Less Than an Hour', sounds like a Gnarls Barkley outtake with Nas on the other side of the 'ft.'

& Rakim to MC Serch getting him his first deal with Columbia ('Shit a little funny, feel a little laughter/ Rebel of hip-hop coming through a white rapper') it's also a penny short of a buck on iTunes.

So what's the motive to buy this? The new track, 'Surviving the Times', is a perfectly fine how-I-got-here reminiscence that details everything from his apprenticeship under Eric B. Put that in a three-song succession with God's Son cut 'Last Real Nigga Alive' as the elaboration/defense and 'Black Republicans' as the reconciliation, and you've got one of the decade's biggest hip-hop stories represented- in microcosm, maybe, but at least it'd be acknowledged, even if it risked reopening some old wounds. 'Ether' is one of those rare 21st century tracks that's become an integral part of rap language, with its title becoming a lower-case way of saying you've completely devastated your opponent in battle. Then there's the material that defined a huge step in Nas' career in the 2000s- namely the Jay-Z beef. And, thanks to label and rights issues, nothing from last year's Hip Hop Is Dead shows up here, even though Columbia jointly financed and promoted it with Def Jam. Even if that period isn't his richest creative stretch it's weird to have it so underrepresented (at least throw in 'Nas Is Like' or something). 'Hate Me Now' is the only track included here that was recorded between 19. (Here's a reminder why: 'I sip the Dom P, watchin Gandhi 'til I'm charged/ Then writin' in my book of rhymes, all the words pass the margin/ To hold the mic I'm throbbin', mechanical movement/ Understandable smooth shit that murderers move with.') State of Mind', and 'One Love'- are classic enough that they'd be difficult to substitute anything else for, leaving out 'The World Is Yours' is just about unforgivable it is Nas' greatest hit. Second, the problem with picking tracks from an album like Illmatic is that you'd have to stop somewhere, but while its four tracks represented here- 'It Ain't Hard to Tell', 'Life's a Bitch', 'N.Y. The track also cemented his viciously intelligent, humor-laced style, and features one of Large Professor's greatest beats.

His 1992 debut single proved he could carry his own track as well as he could carry his guest verses (speaking of which, a great homemade version of Nas' Greatest Hits might kick off with Main Source's 'Live at the Barbeque'). Given the fact that anyone with a computer and a reasonably complete Nas discography can make their own personal Greatest Hits- throw on five tracks from supergroup the Firm if you want, go nuts- the thing that defines Nas' best-of isn't that nearly all of the tracks on it are just about bulletproof, but that the stuff that's missing is important if not flat-out crucial to defining Nas as an MC.ДЇirst, there's no 'Halftime'. Still, the market gets what the market wants, so here's your gratuitous contract-fulfillment best-of, hampered by label rights, an absence of deep cuts, and the obligatory previously unreleased stuff.

Nas life is good tracklist