"Hey Young World" was the second single released from Slick Rick's debut album, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick. It was released in 1989 as the follow-up to Slick Rick's popular "Children's Story" and was both written and produced by Slick Rick himself. "Hey Young World" did not reach the same level of success as "Children's Story", reaching number 42 on the Hot Black Singles chart and number 17 on the Hot Rap Singles chart. The B-side contained the popular song, "Mona Lisa".
The song was referenced in Keri Hilson's song "Knock You Down" by guest rapper Kanye West and also in "Pray" by Jay-Z. A sequel of sorts was created by Macy Gray for her album The Id in form of "Hey Young World (Part 2)." It was sampled by TLC for their single "Creep".
Famous quotes containing the words young and/or world:
““A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisbe, very tragical mirth”—
Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief?
That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I fancy we are almost the only nation in the world who seem to think that composition comes by nature. The French attend to their own language, the Germans study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth their while.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)