Released June 29, 2004 Genre Hip hop Label Ill Will, Columbia | Format CD Length 2:59 Writer(s) Nasir Jones | |
"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:
Contents
The song featured an interpolation of the famous riff from Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" performed by Incredible Bongo Band. Nas would again use the same sample on the 2006 single "Hip Hop is Dead".
Nas sponsored a contest in the United Kingdom in 2004, encouraging entrants to record a verse using the instrumental version of the song. The winner would perform a verse on the song, which appears on the UK version of Street's Disciple. Rising Son won the competition.
The song was featured in Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning film The Departed but was not featured on the soundtrack.
A-side
- "Thief's Theme" (Clean Album Version) (3:00)
- "Thief's Theme" (Explicit Album Version) (3:10)
- "Thief's Theme" (Instrumental) (2:59)
B-side
- "You Know My Style" (Clean Album Version) (2:54)
- "You Know My Style" (Explicit Album Version) (2:54)
- "You Know My Style" (Instrumental) (2:49)