Def Jam Recordings and Nas has officially announced a July 17 release for the rapper’s tenth studio album, Life Is Good.

In a recent interview with MTV, Nas spoke on the ideas behind the music itself and some of the unexpected collaborations that he was involved with during the recording process. “A lot of the tracks have been my ideas – like I would take an idea from one of the guys that I’m working with, and try and put it together with a different sound that I had in my head with someone else and just try to get people to collaborate that really aren’t used to working together and to get something different from me.”

 

It’s been four years since Nas’ last album, Untitled, which received mostly positive reviews. Untitled included the singles “Hero” featuring Keri Hilson and “Make the World Go Round.”

 

The first single from Life Is Good, ”Nasty,” hit airwaves last August and sparked the much-talked about notion that Nas would be releasing his new album before the end of the calendar year, which came and went.

 

Nas’ next single, “Daughters,” which was produced by No I.D. will be released on May 1, four days after the visual for his current single, “The Don,” hits the ‘Net.

 

“This album is, of course, it’s been a long time, it’s been five years since I released a [solo] studio album, so this record is everything,” he told MTV. “This is everything that I’ve got to say…I guess you got to live a little, sometimes not all the time, but you’ve got to live a little and you put that in your music and it’s coming from my life.”

 

Life Is Good will be released on July 17, 2012.