8ball Life's Quest [PA]

Photographer: Maurice Harris.
A super chill, surprisingly reflective record, Life's Quest is an almost conceptual effort by rapper 8Ball, concentrating and concerned with the ups and down experienced in everyone and anyone's life, although still interrupted here and there by some straight-up baller music. The finest interruption comes first with 8Ball's usual cohort, MJG, joining on "We Buy Gold," which adds Big K.R.I.T. to the mix for a true pimp song that mentions Al Green, super models, and beaches in Rio. "Don't Bring Me Down," with the quirky and fun 2 Chainz, pops bottles nearly as hard, while the thudding bass in "Good Girl Bad Girl" will break in woofer's twice as fast as most dubstep tunes. That said, most everything here is coated in that buttery soul that makes 8Ball & MJG albums so smooth, plus the remaining highlights come from the well-done, slow side of the album. The best two act as bookends with the opening "Indestructible" a perfect theme for anyone who's been there and back again, but it's topped by the closing "Bad Days," where 112's Slim contributes to a borderline pop-rap track that's also sweet, two things one wouldn't normally associate with the man who once seemed like the Suave House label's most unforgiving enforcer. Still, that's true heart coming through the speakers, and if 8Ball always seemed more moonshine than fine wine, Life's Quest suggests he can still get better with age and go down smooth when you let him mellow. ~ David Jeffries

• Format: CD
• Genre: R&B