"The World Is Yours" is a 1994 song by rapperNas. It was the fourth single from his debut albumIllmatic, released a month after the album. It is considered by music critics as one of the greatest hip-hop songs ever recorded; About.com ranked it seventh greatest rap song of all time. It reached #13 on the Hot Rap Singles chart in 1994. It contains a sample of Ahmad Jamal's 1970 song, "I Love Music". The song and its accompanying video pay homage to the film Scarface. The song also references drug dealer/crime boss Howard "Pappy" Mason. The song also mentions the serial killer of the Texarkana Moonlight Murders, which went, and still are, unsolved. A remix of the song was produced by Q-Tip featuring similar but new lyrics; both it and the original were released by Columbia Records as singles, and promoted with music videos. Sprite has put the title of this song on its cans and bottles in summer 2015 in part of their "Obey Your Verse" summer campaign which had rap lyrics on their cans.
Samples
Songs from which samples are used in "The World Is Yours" include:
"It's Yours" by T La Rock, but this is not accurate. Jazzy-Jay, who helped Rick Rubin produce "It's Yours" stated during a Red Bull Music Academy interview, that Rick Rubin did not allow the sample to be used and what is heard in "The World Is Yours" is a recreation of the words "It's Yours".
"The World Is Yours / Brooklyn Zoo" by BadBadNotGood.
Jay-Z's sample on his song "Dead Presidents", using one of Nas's lines as the chorus, indirectly led to the Jay-Z vs. Nas feud, after Nas refused to re-record his vocals for the Jay-Z song, or to appear in the accompanying video.
Soundtrack appearances
The song was featured in the video gamesTony Hawk's Underground and NBA 2K13. It can also be heard in a scene in the 2002 filmAntwone Fisher, and appears on the soundtrack for the 2008 filmThe Wackness. The song is also played in the 2015 film Dope.
Other cultural references
"The World Is Yours" was mentioned by Nas in his later songs "Got Ur Self A..." and "Firm Biz".
