 Nas also wanted to write more original subject matter rather than another album "about how you came up in the hood and how you had to make it out of the hood".Although he did not find his album "quite so much about the marriage or the divorce", Nas likened "Life Is Good" to Marvin Gaye's 1978 album "Here, My Dear", which was written by Gaye in response to his own deteriorating marriage and released as a financial settlement.For "Life Is Good"s album cover, a photo was taken of Nas in a polished white suit, sitting in a night club's VIP lounge, appearing forlorn, and holding over his knee Kelis' actual green wedding dress, which he said was the only item she left him.