Nas is currently on the road as part of the Rock the Bells 2011 tour, where he’s performing his 1994 debut Illmatic with DJ Premier and AZ. While in rehearsals for the first show, Nasir phoned Live From HeadQCourterz’s Panchi about how using the hottest producers at the time changed Hip Hop.
“Big crazy honor just to have all of those dudes,” he said. “My man was telling me this, that my album was the first album to come out with multiple producers that was killing the game. Before that, Erick Sermon did EPMD, Bomb Squad did P.E., Premier did Gang Starr, Pete Rock did CL… It was just one house, one team, one man controlling all the sound. He said, yo man, you changed the game when you did this.”
He also implied that a sequel to the film Belly depends on DMX, shouting him out when asked about the potential for another flick.
“I gotta say shout out to my man DMX. I heard he’s home, I heard the barking, I heard him out there. He’s home. Big up to my man X,” he said.
Listen to the full interview below.
RELATED: Nas Recalls Working With DJ Premier & Q-Tip On “Illmatic”
do something prolific in 2011 instead of bragging on a album from 1994.. Nas that was 17 years ago mofo!! him and Raekwon have been riding the longest one album clasic credit shid
THANK YOU!Finally someone said it!that illmaatic shit is over.Make something for this era or generation to remember instead of living in the past.He sound like OG niggas who cant let go of their past.”‘Member when i had that ‘lac back in 78’ i was the man!”Give it up
nas has more than one classic. Illmatic is the most memorable. He on the rock the bells tour performing that album of course he’s going talk about it in the interview. so get off that nigga nuts. the new era would appreciate nas anyway.
name a classic he had after he signed to def jam
RTB tour is for REAL hip hop fans. It’s not for some Gucci Mane, Nicki Manaj, Lil B shit. Last year Snoop performed the “Doggystyle” album and Wu Tang performed “Enter the Wu.” “Illmatic is the most memorable album of Nas’. This is the first time he’s performing the whole album so of course he’s going to talk about it. He has other classics like “Stillmatic,” “It was Written,” “Distant Relatives” and “Street’s Disciple.” You don’t think people still talk about “The Chronic” or “Reasonable Doubt” or “Straight Outta Compton” or “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”? Know your shit young’n before you open your mouth.
@Sean
You sound like a typical “go with the wind” ass cornball. How many classics has there been in that time period? Almost none so gtfoh.
He signed to Def Jam in like what? 2006? That’s 5 years ago and since then hes had Untitled, Distant Relatives and Hip Hop Is Dead, all great albums. Why does it have to be classics? Cd’s doesn’t turn classics overnight you have to wait at least a few years before you can judge.
Untitled was trash . -___- Hip Hop Is Dead was ok, DR was dope .
And to the og poster, Raekwon still makes dope albums matter of fact his last 2 albums were dope , and the upcoming Wu-Tang/D-Block albums gonna be dope too
Untitled Trash? What you smoking on? And Can I have some…lol. Untitled is a classic. Nas was on his grown man wise shit with that album.
Ya’ll niggas just hating on Nas because you mad ur mama got a bigger dick than you lol. Get over it bitches. Nas is da king.
I don’t buy that. You make a classic album, it remains a classic album. Especially if it’s still better than more than half of the bullshit that comes out. And Rae followed up his classic, with another damn near classic in OB4CL II. The thinking is backwards, instead of saying “make something for this generation”, which many artists try to do and fail miserably, how about younger cats actually go back and listen and see why these works are still held in such high regard.
when your on tour because someone asked you to perform your debut album chances are you’ll talk about it from time to time with an interviewer.
guess you never listened to:
It Was Written
I Am
Stillmatic
Streets Disciple
Untitled
Distant Relatives
It’s easy to hate when you haven’t done shit yourself, isn’t it?
@Blizzaow so we have to wait for nas to die to say any of those albums you named to be a classic.don’t wait on it fool.Here are a couple of classic that didnt wait for 5 years to be considered classics:
Makaveli
All Eyez on Me
Ready to Die
Life After Death
Amerikkkas Most Wanted
Reasonable Doubt
The Diary
We Cant Be Stopped
The Chronic
Doggystyle
Food & Liquor(underrated)
Illmatic
start over
Untitled was far too mainstream to be a classic. DR is a debatable classic
It Was Written is an undeniable classic
Stillmatic is a classic
and of course Illmatic is quite possibly the best hip hop album ever
Illmatic is definitely a considered a true classic. I don’t think Stillmatic as an album could be considered a classic because it had too many weak tracks. Nothing else Nas has done could be considered a classic. A classic has to have near universal acclaim in its field, and only Illmatic has done that.
Have you honestly listened to still-matic?
Tell me what weak track?
second childhood?, your the man?, Destroy and rebuild?, What goes around?
There’s a word i would use to describe this whole album and it is’nt weak…The only fault is it lives in the shadow of the widely proclaimed ill- matic
To the bitch as dude below me, Nas rarely ever talks about Illmatic…. He’s just mentioning it now because he is performing the album in shows this summer you fucking bum. NAS HAS PLENTY OF SUCESSFUL ALBUMS. He’s not like Raekwon or other 90s dudes. Most of his shit has gone platinum.
An for the record, Illmatic is arguably the best hiphop album ever made… So of course you’re going to hear people talking about it. WTF Don’t be stupid.
To be honest with you, Raekwon and other 90’s dudes have better discographies than Nas . Like deadass, Rae still puts out good albums to this day .
And yet their album(s) has yet to take Illmatic’s label of the Greatest Rap Album.
Whoa…Raekwon is nice but his albums ain’t no where near better than Nas’s.
To the faggot cracker “thenewme” raekwons albums aren’t touching Nas’ in any sort of way. This nigga Raekwon put out only 5 solo joints in almost 20 years and only Cuban Linx was hot… You must a retarded white dude to say some dumb shit like that. You probably ain’t even heard their shit. No other nigga from that era is still around putting out music as ill as Nas… No one. All of dudes albums are solid.
^Really some racist kid? Why don’t you grow up… And no I don’t agree with him but its his opinion.
you niggaz are whyling saying rae cant touch nas,and ob4cl is just as classic is illmatic…killyourself for thinking anything less…
The god Raekwon!
To all these fools on this thread trying to diss Nas for talking about an album that a) The interviewer asked him about b) Was asked because he is currently PERFORMING the freaking album on Rock the Bells. How can you not get that? Nas is totally relevant today…all because you cant read and write above the 4th grade level doesn’t mean that his raps suck. You just can’t get the metaphors and similes oh yes I will wait while you look those two words up lol. Nas the man, real hip hop dudes in the game know that. He’s your favorite rappers hero while you’re just a dicking riding zero.
Seriously….imho-some of you guys that comment on this site are stupid. I’d like to give a shoutout to:washed up bum ass larry holmes and the idiots that agreed with him. And to the guys I just calledout: Read both 2theSuckassNiggas’s and Annon’s comments.
Man he should asked him when the new album coming out?
rock the bells was insane. best show evaa. nas shut it down with az and preem and pete rock.
can’t wait for the boston show, word!
does that imply a “Belly” sequel? fucking Game is an idiot, he was in Belly 2, now he wants people to google “Belly Sequel” or “Belly 2” so his shitty sequel will show up.
WHY THE FUCK WOULD THERE BE A SEQUEL TO BELLY?!?..IT DONT MAKE SENCE WTF MOVIE DID YALL WATCH??..SMH
Ill- matic is the standard that was set by nas as a cultural classic for modern hip hop..If your such a brilliant and descrptive critique on albums, you tell us what we should be praising as a hip hop all time classic which stands the test of TIME. Or is it that you can’t possibly sound forward thinking with your mentality and your dumass backward opinions on the quality someone’s artistic work!
lmao @ the interview, “you on the air foolio” HAHAHAHAHA
Nas needs to drop one more Classic while he’s still young. If Nas ever decides to leave the game he needs to Leave us with a classic.