To the World

Last updated

"To the World"
Song by Kanye West and R. Kelly
from the album Cruel Summer
ReleasedSeptember 14, 2012
Recorded2012
Genre
Length3:51
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)

"To the World" is a song by American hip hop recording artists Kanye West and R. Kelly. It also features uncredited vocals from Teyana Taylor. [1] The song was produced by Wansel, Oakwud, West, Hudson Mohawke, Ken Lewis, Mano, Travis Scott and Anthony Kilhoffer. It includes a diss directed from West towards Mitt Romney. Roscoe Dash claimed to have helped write the song via Twitter, despite his name not being on the credits. In 2012, the song charted in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Canada.

Contents

Background and composition

The track surfaced online on September 13, 2012, one day before the album's release. [2] It includes classical strings and drums. [2] Within the track, West quotes American rapper Rick Ross with the line: "These niggas tryna hold me back". [3]

Controversy

West takes a shot at Mitt Romney in "To the World", rapping the line: "Mitt Romney don't pay no tax, Mitt Romney don't pay no tax", which is a reference to how Romney refused to make more than two years of his tax returns public. [4] Despite West dissing Romney, Barack Obama was actually the one from the 2012 election that had issues with West in the past, calling him a jackass on two separate occasions. [5] The Guardian actually cited it as what may be the best line on the album. [6]

Roscoe Dash claimed to be an uncredited writer for "To the World" during a rant by him from his Twitter account a few days after the album was released. [7] Dash elaborated on this in an October 2012 interview with Sway Calloway by claiming to feel like there was an error along the lines of a typo that lead to him not receiving credit. [8]

Commercial performance

Despite never being released as a single, the song managed to chart in a total of four countries worldwide in 2012. It performed best in the United States, where it peaked at number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100 and also reached number 35 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. [9] [10] "To the World" managed to reach the top 100 in the United Kingdom and Canada too, charting at number 94 on the UK Singles Chart and number 92 on the Canadian Hot 100 respectively. [11] [12] As well as this, it reached number 161 in France. [13]

Charts

Chart (2012)Peak
position
Canada (Canadian Hot 100) [14] 92
France (SNEP) [15] 161
UK Singles (Official Charts Company) [16] 94
UK R&B (Official Charts Company) [17] 17
US Billboard Hot 100 [18] 70
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ( Billboard ) [19] 35
US Hot Rap Songs ( Billboard ) [20] 24

Notes

  1. Credited as co-producer
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Credited as additional producer

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References

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  7. Fitzgerald, Trent (September 21, 2012). "Roscoe Dash Claims Kanye West Didn't Give Him Credit on 'Cruel Summer'". PopCrush . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  8. Harling, Danielle (October 4, 2012). "Roscoe Dash Gives An Update On Receiving Proper Credit On "Cruel Summer"". HipHopDX . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
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