"The World Is Yours" is the third single from rapper

Rapping

Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

 Nas

Nas

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...

's debut album Illmatic

Illmatic

Illmatic is the debut album of American rapper Nas, released April 19, 1994, on Columbia Records. Following his signing to Columbia with the help of MC Serch, recording sessions for the album took place during 1992 to 1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording...

, released a month after the album. It is considered by some music critics one of the greatest hip-hop songs ever recorded. The song was produced by Pete Rock

Pete Rock

Peter Phillips , better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapper. He rose to prominence in the early 1990s as one half of the critically acclaimed group Pete Rock & CL Smooth...

—who also sings the song's chorus

Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

—and samples "I Love Music" by Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal is an innovative and influential American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. According to Stanley Crouch, Jamal is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Charlie Parker...

 and "It's Yours" by T La Rock

T La Rock

Clarence "Terry" Ronnie Keaton , known by the stage name T La Rock, is an American old-school emcee best known for his collaboration with Def Jam Recordings co-founder Rick Rubin and the 1984 single "It's Yours." He disappeared from the hip hop scene after a traumatic brain injury in 1994, but as...

. 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

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 as singles, and promoted with music videos. It reached #13 on the Hot Rap Singles chart in 1994 and is now lauded as one of Nas's best tracks. The song and its accompanying video pay homage to the film Scarface

Scarface (1983 film)

Scarface is a 1983 American epic crime drama movie directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone, produced by Martin Bregman and starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana...

. "The World is Yours" is known as one of the foundations of the Jay-Z vs. Nas feud

Jay-Z vs. Nas feud

The Jay-Z–Nas feud was a hip hop rivalry during the early-2000s and one of the most high-profile feuds in the history of hip hop music. It was characterized by comments between Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Nasir "Nas" Jones from 2001 until resolved in 2005...

 because Jay-Z sampled it on his first single "Dead Presidents", using one of Nas's lines ("I'm out for presidents to represent me") as the chorus.

Use in Popular Media

• Sampled in:
  • "Dead Presidents" by Jay-Z
    Jay-Z
    Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
    
    .
  • "Thief's Theme
    Thief's Theme
    "Thief's Theme" is a single from Nas' double album Street's Disciple. The single contains vocals from Nas' song "The World Is Yours" from his first album Illmatic:...
    
    " by Nas.
  • "Usual Suspects" by Rick Ross
    Rick Ross (rapper)
    William Leonard Roberts II , better known by his stage name Rick Ross, is an American rapper. He derived his stage name from the drug trafficker "Freeway" Ricky Ross, to whom he has no connection...
    
     featuring Nas
    Nas
    Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
    
     and Kevin Cossom
  • "Jealousy Woes II" by Eminem
    Eminem
    Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
    
    .
  • "Thief's Theme" by Jigmastas.
  • "In Remembrance" by Blu & Exile.
  • "Droga" by Hemp Gru.
  • "Chase The Clouds Away" by Evidence.
  • "Falling" by 1982 featuring Reks
  • "President" by Lil Wayne
  • "Better?" by Propellerheads
    Propellerheads
    Propellerheads were a British big beat musical ensemble, formed in 1995 and made up of electronic producers Will White and Alex Gifford. The term propellerhead is slang for a nerd, and when Gifford and White heard a friend from California use this in a conversation, they thought it the perfect name...
    
    
  • "Dead Presidents" by Chamillionaire
    Chamillionaire
    Hakeem Seriki , better known by his stage name Chamillionaire, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Chamillitary Entertainment. Chamillionaire is also the founder and an original member of The Color Changin' Click...
    
    
  • "Nikes On My Feet" by Mac Miller
    Mac Miller
    Malcolm McCormick , known by his stage name Mac Miller , is an American rapper from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
    
    
• Featured in the game Tony Hawk's Underground
  Tony Hawk's Underground
  Tony Hawk's Underground, abbreviated to THUG, is a skateboarding video game, available for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Xbox platforms released in 2003. A PC version was released exclusively in Australia as a budget release in 2005. This version was ported by Beenox. In 2004,...
  
  .
• Can be heard in a scene in the film Antwone Fisher
  Antwone Fisher (film)
  Antwone Fisher is a 2002 American drama film directed by Denzel Washington, marking his directorial debut. He also stars in the film as the psychiatrist Jerome Davenport, alongside Hollywood newcomer Derek Luke, who plays the title role , and ex-model Joy Bryant, as Fisher's girlfriend.The film is...
  
  .
• Appears on the soundtrack for the film The Wackness
  The Wackness
  The Wackness is a 2008 American coming of age drama film by Jonathan Levine and starring Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, and Olivia Thirlby. The film is distributed by Sony Pictures Classics and was released in the U.S. on July 3, 2008.-Plot:...
  
  .
• About.com ranked it seventh greatest rap song of all time.
• Title for the song was taken from the movie Scarface
  Scarface (1932 film)
  Scarface is a 1932 American gangster film starring Paul Muni and George Raft, produced by Howard Hughes, directed by Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson, and written by Ben Hecht based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Armitage Trail...
  
  .
• Mentioned by Nas in later songs: "Got Ur Self A...
  Got Ur Self A...
  "Got Ur Self A..." is the second single from the 2001 album Stillmatic by the rapper Nas. The song samples "Woke Up This Morning" by Alabama 3. It reached #87 on the Billboard Hot 100.-Music video:...
  
  ", "Firm Biz
  Firm Biz
  "Firm Biz" is the first single by the Hip hop supergroup The Firm from their singular collaborative LP The Album. The song was produced by L.E.S, who based the song's track on a sample of Teena Marie's 1981 hit "Square Biz". "Firm Biz" also features a chorus performed by former En Vogue singer Dawn...
  
  " etc.
• References drug dealer/crime boss Howard "Pappy" Mason
  Howard Mason
  Howard "Pappy" Mason is an American drug trafficker and organized crime figure. Mason ran a drug smuggling gang called the Bebos in the Jamaica, Queens neighborhood of New York City with his partner Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols...
  
  .

B-Side

1. "The World Is Yours" (Tip Mix) (4:29)
2. "The World Is Yours" (Tip Mix Instrumental) (4:30)

Charts

Chart (1994)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100...	14
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...	67
U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks Hot Rap Tracks Rap Songs is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stations and sales in hip hop-focused or exclusive markets. From 1989 through 2001, it was based on how much the single...	27