Legacy Recordings

Descending from a long line of storytellers, Nasir Jones looks out on the world and sees a chilling urban landscape. Smart and perceptive enough to subvert his language, the sleepy-eyed, straight-up rapper became a street legend as a teenager from Queens. With his modern morality tales and portraits of communities decimated by poverty, his street narratives and word plays up the ante on sucka MCs who glorify thug life and its opportunity. An urban griot, his rhymes hold up a mirror to society and what it chooses to celebrate.

(P. Phillips/N. Jones); Produced by Pete Rock; NAS, lead vocal; Contains a portion of “It’s Yours” performed by T La Rock; Rec. New York, 1994. From Illmatic, Columbia 57684; P 1994 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

The World Is Yours by Nas