It's been 20 years since Nas released Illmatic, one of the most pivotal albums in hip-hop history. To celebrate the album and its message, first-time filmmakers One9 and Erik Parker released a powerful documentary titled Nas: Time is Illmatic.

"It was a favorite album of so many people that I knew because it spoke to us," Parker, a New Jersey native, said during a press conference at the Tribeca Film Center in New York on Monday. "It spoke for us."

The documentary, which took 10 years to complete and opened the Tribeca Film Festival this year, details Nasir Jones's upbringing in the Queensbridge housing projects of Queens, N.Y. It delves into the rapper's relationship with his loving mother, Fannie Ann Jones, and his father, Olu Dara, a musician who encouraged Nas to drop out of high school and pursue his ambition.

Jabari "Jungle" Jones, Nas's younger brother, is another major character in the film, who speaks candidly about growing up in such a rough neighborhood. He also keeps the rapper connected to his roots.

"Jungle is very much needed in the film because I'm sometimes not that talkative," Nas said. "He lets it all out."

The 41-year-old rapper also called Jungle his "hero" because of his indifference toward a Hollywood lifestyle after Nas's success. "He doesn't want to be a part of anything, except the community," Nas said.

For both One9 and Parker, that community is a major theme of the film. Time is Illmatic, they said, isn't simply a music documentary about the critically acclaimed album - it's about the deep social and political issues of the '90s that Nas brought attention to through his lyrics.

"It's more of an American story," One9, a D.C. native, said. "Queensbridge represents what's going on in Chicago, what's going on in Detroit, what's going on in Compton, what's going on in D.C., what's going on in Ferguson."

The songs on Illmatic emphasize poverty, public housing and violence in a neighborhood filled with people who are often overlooked. The filmmakers highlight One Love, which they believe sums up those difficulties precisely. On the track, Nas writes a letter to his imprisoned friend and fills him in on what he's missed since he's been away.

"No time for looking back, what's done is done. Plus congratulations, you know you got a son? I heard he looks like you. Why don't your lady write you? Told her she should visit, that's when she got hyper," Nas raps.

When Nas finishes reading that letter, Parker said, "you come away with all the social problems without him preaching about them. You come away with humanizing the person who committed a crime... We can have some empathy for someone who's locked up."

Parker added, "If we don't really make an effort to understand Jungle, to understand the people that Nas was talking about in Illmatic, then we miss a great opportunity to see it through their eyes and make change."

In one of the most powerful scenes in the documentary, Jungle shows Nas a photograph taken on the day he was shooting his first album cover in Queensbridge. Jungle reveals that most people in the photo are either dead or imprisoned.

"I feel that each life in this room is a real miracle when you think about the ones who didn't make it here, so you have to make this time here mean something," Nas said. "I was a young guy who was driven to be heard and these guys heard me and they loved the album and here we are today."

Because of its strong message, Time is Illmatic influenced a soon-to-be launched year-long educational initiative with the help of Tribeca Film, Illa Films and the Hip-Hop Education Center. It will consist of an interactive Web portal as well as pop-up exhibits throughout the country.

"If you're from the street you kind of feel prestigious schools are not for you, they don't want you," Nas said. "We are here and we are American and we have to bridge the gaps between those guys out there in the street and the education world."

For more information on the course visit timeisillmatic.com/education. Time is Illmatic opens in select theaters on Wednesday and is available on iTunes Friday.

-- Anna Halkidis is a multimedia journalist, who earned her master's degree from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in 2012. Her work has appeared in Newsday, Women's eNews, The Mott Haven Herald, as well as other publications. Follow her on Twitter.

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