Nasir checks in from rehearsal for Rock the Bells 2011 to reflect on his classic debut.

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 here.