Built around a sample of "Dance in New York" by reggae singer Super Cat, a former collaborator of Nas, "The Don" is backed by a boom bap, reggae-tinged production with additional drum and piano sounds.

Lyrically, Nas reaffirms his status as a "street poet", addressing the hardships of poverty within disadvantaged societies and the realities of weapon and drug problems.

"The Don" was produced by Da Internz, Heavy D and Salaam Remi – the latter a regular collaborator with Nas on many of his previous songs, including the singles "I Can" and "Made You Look".

[7] Audio mixing was carried out by Jaycen Joshua at Larrabee Studios in Hollywood, California, with additional vocals being provided by Red Alert.

[8] Ken Capobianco shared similar sentiments about the song's style, observing that it "evoke[s] the sound and feel of New York’s '90s hip-hop heyday".

[11] Henry Adaso of About.com noted Nas' lyrics as consistent with his persona of a "street poet", writing that "there are gun threats, car boasts, thoughts of rooftop sex, shoutouts to New York rap pioneers, and references to real drug rings".

[10] According to Rolling Stone writer Simon Vozick-Levinson, Nas "deftly" addresses his earlier life by describing "a concise portrait of the artist as a young man".

[10] A reviewer of the song for DJBooth wrote of Nas' performance as "at turns wistful, threatening and braggadocious", and praised the production's "compulsively head-noddable groove".

[16][17] On April 18, 2012, a 30-second promotional clip of the video was released online, which contained shots of skyscrapers and Nas being escorted out of a crowd of party-goers into a white Rolls-Royce.

[17] After quickly moving between various images of New York City, Nas is shown sitting at a table at an open-air restaurant with a female, at which point he raps the opening lyrics of the song.

[17] Nas first performed "The Don" live on March 18, 2012, as part of a set specially organised by video service Vevo at the music festival South by Southwest.