After last year’s release Doing It For Me, Larry June and Alchemist follow up The Great Escape, linking up with the underrated wordsmith and Atlanta legend 2 Chainz.
Though familiar territory for Larry and Al, this 11 track album celebrates the victory of that great escape, however, the addition of 2 Chainz adds a whole new and unexpected level of depth and texture, cementing that success. Kicking off with Munyon Canyon, an interesting listen as audiences may be accustomed to the sound and feel, then 2 Chainz enters and we get to hear him on a tempo that real fans have longed for (since his work with Statik Selektah). This combination is further emphasised with the second track, Colossal, where Alchemist gets to draw for the darker and grittier sound more complimentary to 2 Chainz, allowing Larry June to now follow suit. This is the overall theme, with the three weaving through their essences that seems to effortlessly intertwine, evident with tracks like I Been and LLC. As someone that has wanted an Alchemist & 2 Chainz project, this is quite the audio treat, leading up to Bad Choices, with the album thus far feeling more in vein of the previous Alchemist & Larry June collaboration and the title track Life is Beautiful providing a solid bridge to the next half of the album, where it feels more in style for 2 Chainz, another example of Alchemist’s versatility and attention to detail beyond great production. Track 6, Generation ushers in that more concrete element and Chainz hits the ground running, with Larry June just as comfortable gliding through. The luxurious sounding Any Day finds the perfect blend for all parties, allowing them to accentuate their raw lyricism freely, followed by Epiphany, where by now the unorthodox pairing of Larry June and 2 Chainz feels natural, with Tru Organics like the title, a great mix of the their respective brands. Despite some expectancy (with two of the three having collaborated recently), Life Is Beautiful manages to dispel any predictability whilst maintaining the level of quality, ending with the cinematic Jean Prouvé, smoothly closing out the album as Larry June and 2 Chainz establish their presences once more like a post-credit scene.
I had some initial idea of how this project would sound and maybe was bias to wanting to hear just a 2 Chainz & Alchemist project (which still can happen), however I was pleasantly surprised with how this turned out, as there’s always been a level of opulence with Alchemist and Larry June, so who else better to rendezvous with, than the grandioso 2 Chainz Toni himself to remind us, Life Is Beautiful.
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