Nas, The World Is Yours | Rap BNGRZ 🔥

In the 8^th edition of Rap BNGRZ 🔥 (2023), we break down the banger status of “The World Is Yours,” performed by Nas.

Bring on the braggadocio, drip, sex, and kickassery, WOO! You’ve entered Rap BNGRZ 🔥 territory! On Rap BNGRZ 🔥 (bangers being the proper spelling), the premise is simple. Rap BNGRZ provides background info and commentary on cocky, confident, ferocious hip-hop/rap songs. The bangers can be brand-spanking-new or certified classics. In the 8^th edition of Rap BNGRZ 🔥 (2023), we break down the banger status of 🎵 “The World Is Yours” performed by 🎙 Nas.

“Whose world is this? / The world is yours, the world is yours / It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine…” 💪Sadly, it only took an entire career for iconic rapper, 🎙 Nas, to earn his first 🏆 Grammy 😏 (💿 King’s Disease, 2020). Looking back through an illustrious catalog, including the 1994 album, 💿 Illmatic, and the question is, why did it take so long? Furthermore, even if you neglect Illmatic, for whatever reason, how can you neglect the gold-certified song, 🎵 “The World Is Yours”? “The World Is Yours” is classic hip-hop at its finest, featuring production by 🎛 Pete Rock. The sampling choices – 🎙 Ahmad Jamal Trio, 🎙 T La Rock & Jazzy Jay, and 🎙 Jimmy Gordon & His Jazznpops Band – give “The World Is Yours” both an distinct East Coast sound coupled with jazz/jazz rap sensibilities.    Furthermore, how about Pete Rock singing on the unforgettable chorus?

Pete Rock plays a pivotal role on “The World Is Yours.” Still, the star of the show is the young don himself, Nas. Nas has been serving up those bars for years, all the while deserving more credit than he’s received.  There are endless bars, delivered with a conscious mentality, that catch the ear. An entire essay could be written analyzing and deciphering his rhymes. Honestly, he starts off fast, asserting at the beginning of the first verse, “I sip the Dom P, watchin’ Ghandi ‘til I’m changed, then / Writin’ in my book of rhymes, all the words past the margin / To hold the mic I’m throbbin’, mechanical movement / Understandable smooth shit that murderers move with.” Woo! He closes the verse, spitting, “I’m out for dead presidents to represent me” [INSERTS show me the money GIF here]. There are some intriguing spiritual lines in the second verse, which seem to reference the MC’s son: “My strength, my son, the star will be my resurrection / Born in correction, all the wrong shit I did, he’ll lead in right direction.” In the third verse, in the line, “Picturin’ my peeps not eatin’ can make my heartbeat skip” is a prime example of social consciousness.  It does hit differently, doesn’t it?  The big takeaway is, 🎵 “The World Is Yours” is one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time.  It never, NEVER grows old.

🎙 Nas • 💿 Illmatic • 🏷 Columbia • 🗓 1994

Nas, “The World Is Yours”: Rap BNGRZ 🔥 No. 8 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner/The Musical Hype; Columbia; cottonbro studio via Pexels]