If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)
by Nas

Album: It Was Written (1996)
Charted: 12 53
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  • Life
    I wonder
    Will it take me under
    I don't know

    Imagine smoking weed in the streets without cops harassin'
    Imagine going to court with no trial
    Lifestyle, cruising blue Bahama waters
    No welfare supporters, more conscious of the way we raise our daughters
    Days are shorter, nights are colder
    Feeling like life is over, these snakes strike like a cobra
    The world's hot, my son got knocked
    Evidently, it's elementary, they want us all gone eventually
    Troopin' out of state for a plate of knowledge
    If coke was cooked without the garbage, we'd all have the top dollars
    Imagine everybody flashin' fashion, designer clothes
    Lacing your clique up with diamond Roles
    Your people holdin' dough, no parole, no rubbers
    Go in raw, imagine law with no undercovers
    Just some thoughts for the mind
    I take a glimpse into time
    Watch the blimp read, "The World Is Mine"

    If I ruled the world (imagine that)
    I'd free all my sons, I love 'em, love 'em, baby
    Black diamonds and pearls
    (Could it be, if you could be mine, we'd both shine)
    If I ruled the world
    (Still livin' for today, in these last days and times)

    Yo, it'd be, paradise life, relaxin'
    Black, Latino and Anglo-Saxon
    Armani Exchange, the Range
    Cash, Lost Tribe of Shabazz free at last
    Brand new whips to crash, then we laugh in a iller path
    The Villa house is for the crew, how we do
    Trees for breakfast, dime sexes and Benz stretches
    So many years of depression make me vision
    The better livin', type of place to raise kids in
    Open they eyes to the lies, history's told foul
    But I'm as wise as the old owl, plus the Gold Child
    Seeing things like I was controlling, clique rollin'
    Trickin' six digits on kicks and still holdin'
    Trips to Paris, I'd civilize every savage
    Give one shot, I turn trife life to lavish
    Political prisoners set free, stress free
    No work release, purple M3's and jet skis
    Feel the wind breeze in West Indies
    I'd let Coretta Scott-King mayor the cities and reverse fiends to Willies
    It sounds foul, but every girl I meet'd go downtown
    I'd open every cell in Attica, send 'em to Africa

    If I ruled the world (imagine that)
    I'd free all my sons, I love 'em, love 'em, baby
    Black diamonds and pearls
    (Could it be, if you could be mine, we'd both shine)
    If I ruled the world
    (Still livin' for today, in these last days and times)

    And then we'll walk right up to the sun, hand in hand
    We'll walk right up to the sun, we won't land
    We'll walk right up to the sun, hand in hand
    We'll walk right up to the sun, we won't land

    You love to hear the story how the thugs live in worry
    Duck down in car seats, heat's mandatory
    Runnin' from Jake, gettin' chased, hunger for papes
    These are the breaks, many mistakes go down out of state
    Wait, I had to let it marinate, we carry weight
    Tryna get laced, flip the ace, stack the safe
    Millionaire plan to keep the gat with the cocked hammer
    Makin' moves in Atlanta, back and forth scrambler
    'Cause you could have all the chips, be poor or rich
    Still nobody want a nigga havin' shit
    If I ruled the world and everything in it, sky's the limit
    I push the Q-45 Infinit'
    It wouldn't be no such thing as jealousies, or B felony
    Strictly living longevity to the destiny
    I thought I'd never see, but reality struck
    Better find out before your time's out, what the fuck

    If I ruled the world (imagine that)
    I'd free all my sons, I love 'em, love 'em, baby
    Black diamonds and pearls
    (Could it be, if you could be mine, we'd both shine)
    If I ruled the world
    (Still livin' for today, in these last days and times)
    If I ruled the world, if I ruled, if I ruled (imagine that)
    I'd free all my sons, if I ruled, if I ruled
    I love 'em, love 'em, baby
    Black diamonds and pearls, black diamonds, black diamonds
    (Could it be, if you could be mine, we'd both shine)
    If I ruled the world
    (Still livin' for today, in these last days and times)

    If I ruled the world, if I ruled, if I ruled
    I'd free all my sons, black diamonds
    I love 'em, love 'em, baby
    Black diamonds and pearls, if I ruled
    If I ruled the world
    If I ruled the world
    I love 'em, love 'em, baby Writer/s: Aaron O'bryant, Allan Felder, David Reeves, Jalil Hutchins, Jean Olivier, Kurt Walker, Lawrence Smith, Nasir Jones, Norman Harris, Samuel Barnes
    Publisher: Cloud9, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Downtown Music Publishing, Reservoir Media Management, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 2

  • Eyes from A Fallen WorldNas has an obsession of being god like or like God. If I ruled the world is his version of ruling things on his command.
    I was too stupid as a kid in the 90s to pick up on that. Now as an adult, I listen to some of the "best hip hop artists and can't help to think how dumb they are. Very few are wise. Nas is cunning, but anyone who blasphemes God lacks wisdom and mimics fallen angels.

    This is an interesting link showing Nas' history of being anti-god or wishing to be more than God or just as powerful (reminder, that was Satan's desire):
    https://bit.ly/39vaMfF
  • Tanya from La Verne, CaNas version is also about social change. Whoever wrote the fact is wrong.
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