Album of the Week: 2 Chainz, Larry June and Alchemist’s ‘Life Is Beautiful’
When it comes to collaborative albums, no one does it quite like The Alchemist. The producer continues to spearhead the rapper-producer art form, teaming up with a wide range of lyricists throughout his career, from Freddie Gibbs to Prodigy to Earl Sweatshirt. Decades into making music, he may have just presented his most exciting project yet, joining forces with 2 Chainz and Larry June for a whole album.
The trio released their joint album, Life Is Beautiful, on February 7th. The project, which consists of 11 tracks and is entirely produced by Alchemist, finds Chainz and June swapping verses over the course of 37 minutes. It includes the singles ‘Bad Choices’ and ‘I Been’, which have already racked up millions of streams between them.
Hailing from Atlanta and the Bay Area, the two rappers make rapping sound effortless across Alchemist’s smooth production, as Chainz seamlessly enters Alc’s ever-growing universe. Although Chainz has a history of rapping over trap beats, he’s always sounded at home over this type of production. Look no further than the 9th Wonder-produced ‘Threat 2 Society’ from 2019’s Rap or Go to the League album or ‘Mortgage Free’ with DJ Premier.
June is also solid as ever, having previously worked with Alchemist on another collaborative album called The Great Escape in 2023, which featured Big Sean, Curren$y, Joey Bada$$, Ty Dolla $ign, Wiz Khalifa, Action Bronson, Boldy James, and others.
Speaking to Rolling Stone that year, the producer was full of praise for June. “I find [that with] MCs that I could really mesh with, we got to find a way where we can find a sound that works,” he said. “I’ve discovered that he’s versatile. He can do a lot of shit, so when we got up it was easy.
“And he’s one of the easiest people that I’ve ever worked with and the most fun because his energy is positive and we going up every time. It’s fun to work with Larry. He’s really a scientist. He records his own shit. I trust his opinion on music, too.”
He added, “I don’t look at him as just a rapper. He’s musical and records his own shit. That’s what I mean by ‘easy.’ Once we found the beats, he was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m going in on this.’ And then, if we needed a chorus or something, it was so easy. It was like, ‘Yep, that’s it.’”
Chainz has released collaborative albums in the past with Lil Wayne and his T.R.U. (The Real University) collective, but this is his first time working with one producer across an entire project. June, on the other hand, has dropped many joint albums, connecting with Cardo, Sledgren, Harry Fraud, Jay Worthy, and Cookin’ Soul.
Life Is Beautiful is Alchemist’s first album of the year, and he’s set to return with another on March 28th, teaming up with Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) for Forensics. If his output is anything like the last few years, we should also get even more projects by the end of 2025.