In a rap world where saturation and being omnipresent is paramount to maintaining a buzz, Bas has taken the opposite route, carefully picking his spots while letting the quality of his work speak for itself. With two years having passed since his last release, his brooding sophomore album Too High to Riot, Bas has reappeared on the scene with his latest album, Milky Way. The project looks to raise his profile to unprecedented heights.

Since the release of Last Winter in 2014, the Dreamville signee has proved to be a quality acquisition for J. Cole's growing roster of talent, balancing intricate flows with musings on life and love, making him one of the more endearing rising artists in the game. On Milky Way, Bas sticks to the script, delivering 14 tracks that give a glimpse into the lifestyle and trappings of a rap star who is growing and evolving as a man and an artist.

Bas gathers production from an array of boardsmen, including Cole, Cedric Brown, Childish Major and Ron Gilmore, coming up with a diverse soundscape that pulls form various parts of the African diaspora. While Bas is the main attraction on Milky Way, a few guests also contribute to the proceedings, with J. Cole, A$AP Ferg, Ari Lennox, Lion Babe, Correy C, DJ Moma and others popping up throughout the album.

After giving the Queens rep's latest a few spins, XXL handpicks 20 of the best lyrics from Milky Way that are sure to rank among your faves from the album.

  • "Icarus"

    Bas Featuring Ari Lennox

    "And you know they be lying like Kellyanne Conway/I just get my thoughts off, I just take the top off/When the cauldron bubble, we come from the back blocks, so they call us trouble, we can never slouch nor stop off/Weekend on the couch with the socks off/Nah, we can make it count, run the clock up/We can count lives on the block lost/Cautionary tape, that we can never block off" —Bas

  • "Icarus"

    Bas Featuring Ari Lennox

    "I can't get jiggy with you clowns/I'm busy, I've been givin' New York City a whole new sound/Who really gone hold us down who?/Me, funny/I catch niggas getting sore when I do me/I still wish them niggas more than they do me/Gotta live up to the blessings of my umi/Bring myself couple steps closer to my God above/Never read the Art of War but its hard to love"—Bas

  • "Icarus"

    Bas Featuring Ari Lennox

    "I thought I’d be fulfilled/I came from not a dollar in my mama basement/I came from baggin' product in my mama basement/Almost caught some shells tryna bust a couple sales/Then went and caught a collar in my mama basement/I been tryna keep her proud since/Nigga way back/Got some niggas keep me grounded that’s from way back/But I gotta take flight sometimes" — Bas

  • "Tribe"

    Bas Featuring J. Cole

    "I think I made it, I think I made it/'Cause I'm always smiling, and you are the reason now/Girl, I can't explain it/It's all in the timing, I had to get low, I had to get low/I had to get back, I had to report/I had to get facts 'cause you are just that, you that/You share your truths with me/And I find them true, a muse, you in the booth with me"—Bas

  • "Tribe"

    Bas Featuring J. Cole

    "God shuffled the cards, dealt me a hand with impossible odds/Put an obstacle course up/Look, and I conquered them all/With minimal effort I'm fresher than sock in your drawer/They spinning my records so heavy, I'm topping the Forbes/Stuck in a rock and a hard place though/Is it true what they say? The higher you go, the longer the fall?/Well I dropped to the floor then knocking the door was on queue/I thought that I saw it all 'til I saw you" —J. Cole

  • "Boca Raton"

    Bas Featuring A$AP Ferg

    "She good for the soul, she good for the mind/She help me get found—TomTom/She help me eat clean—balsamic/She might end up meeting my mama/Let's take it back like Western time zones/Used to call you up to share my milestones/Now you hear my voice and sound annoyed/Might as well be talking to the dial tone" —Bas

  • "Boca Raton"

    Bas Featuring A$AP Ferg

    "I'm seeing life through Versace/Dippin' in the Mazi/'Bout to eat Hibachi/Now with the pass the Courvoisier/Sippin' till I'm sloppy/Fuck her till she knock knees/I put a hurting on her 'nani/Anaconda through her body/Got her screaming, 'Golly!'/Dale boom dale/She a work of art like a Salvador Dali" —A$AP Ferg

  • "Barack Obama Special"

    Bas

    "Whatever lets/Smoke budda make more gudda cheese/My whip European but the kid Sudanese/Got a laundry list of niggas with a list of they needs, holy/Them cats is prone to actin phony/Get no action ask the homes, you ain’t know?/We miles ahead the matrimony’s dead/No time for fakes my niggas made mistakes/Heard it all the commentary’s dead/They go to state don’t get no GPAs/Got GTAs the commissary fed"—Bas

  • "Barack Obama Special"

    Bas

    "I had to move 'cause neighbors so racist, my new crib fly though/Looking like the 4th of July, though/Looking like a frosted gelato/Cool as a chill, Navy Seal nigga/Hot as the heels on a field nigga/Putting in work fuck how you feel/Buy my family trips, fuck value meals"—Bas

  • "Barack Obama Special"

    Bas

    "I can tell you're apprehensive and I can't ask why/I'm like fireworks in the Baghdad sky/I might be the second coming, I might be the end all/But I keep it coming, specially off the Hen dog/In the end all rivers, lakes will dry out, but us involved we gon' leave a ocean of salt/So many love's lost/Let count it with the gloves off/I need more fingers" —Bas

  • "Purge"

    Bas

    "City to city a young legend fulfillin' my dreams/Shatterin' ceilings it got me feelin' myself/Look how I’m fittin' the belt/They never give me a chance/I never give em a breath/Keep a foot on they neck/I go deeper to depths/Submerged in it I’m getting the urge nigga/I’m killin these niggas off/Call me the purge I just been peelin' the feelings off/Layers of inner thoughts, you playin' 'em in your car/But really you in my head like yarmulke synagogues/Bassy been a problem they probably never could solve/Lock me at the bottom they probably got better odds/Of knockin' the rings off of Saturn"—Bas

  • "Purge"

    Bas

    "These pups ain’t war ready/Get lost in the city
    Like doc Gooden, Strawberry/When the block hot tell Cosby/I got pudding already/In the drop top bitch hop in it already/Yellin', 'Fuck the cops'/Middle finger to the ops stop with it already/Y'all efforts get nothing but Fs/Y'all crampin' my style but I got hot with it already/This for the phony and the sleep/Throwin up the gold emoji niggas lookin like some sheep" —Bas

  • "Infiniti+2"

    Bas Featuring Correy C

    "All my niggas high as hell and blunted/Bought my bitch the YSL she wanted/Nigga, mom dukes want a trip to Dubai, I'ma get her everything she wanted/I'ma do the shit the way I wanna/Qboro to them California days/Remember hoes I had to motivate, now they see son like the water break" —Bas

  • "Sanufa"

    Bas

    "'Cause you know this, yeah you know this/I ain't one for being bogus/Got this weight up on my shoulders/Girl you treat me like a bogey/I've been stressed out, keep me stress free/You've been waitin' for me so long/Couple days I had to prolong/Hold on, hold on" —Bas

  • "PDA"

    Bas

    "I'ma rock the bowtie, do the whole nine/You won't even show light 'til it's show time/And you gon' shine so bright, so bright/Illuminate the whole sky, oh my/My niggas gon' be drunk as shit, talkin' shit/They gone joke, yeah, life is over, toast to this/I know this a new beginning/I know I find that shit obvious since you descended" —Bas

  • "Designer"

    Bas

    "Fly to Japan, seen a panda like Desiigner/Fly out to London, the drugs was like designer/Fly out to France, bought some pants that was designer/Did that by design, I did that by designin'/'Cause I'm a star, dodgin' bitches like they be comets/Or they be comics, or read comics" —Bas

  • "Designer"

    Bas

    "I'm dedicated to my pay-grade, I'm heavy goin' eighth/They play it safe so they never afraid/But my fears make me great, make me feel alive, levitate/Let you bear the weight of how I feel inside/Let the pain go, I choose to move freely/Let my wings grow, I'm movin' too freely/See, this game, it'll ruin dudes easy/Platinum chain, but the ego grows easy" —Bas

  • "Designer"

    Bas

    "Be faithful, it's harder to say it/I don’t know how else to say it/The wonders of all the mosaics/I don’t know how I could stay put/Slim chance, I go straight crook/Like I trace edges/Let my pace tell it/I shine like the cave dwellers/On their first day smellin' pine/Happy earth day you heard, the world is mine/And don’t it show/A nigga hate to brag/But it show/I been out collecting bags/’Cause the tape a classic/Told myself that I would make it happen" —Bas

  • "Spaceships + Rockets"

    Bas Featuring Lion Babe, _Moma+Guy and Moe Moks

    "Iconic I got it/All the way facts/Plutonic James Harden/Hit her with a step back/Tell the bitch step back/Ironic took the Knicks to bring a Hardaway back/It was harder way back/Niggas harbor hate, hatin' niggas hard to hate back/New bitch, new flows, nigga, automate that/All the way Black like Sudan in the summer/Hundred bands in the belt/I ain't dancing for nothing" —Bas

  • "Spaceships + Rockets"

    Bas Featuring Lion Babe, _Moma+Guy and Moe Moks

    "Got the sand in my hair and the beach next to me/Nigga, please step to me/Have to son these niggas, have to run these niggas/Had to cut some off like a vasectomy/When the beat get to me make it reset/Moma+guy met this shawty at your party, she was almost like purified water, rarefied air/I could die in her arms and be mummified there" —Bas

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