Nas Documentary ‘Time Is Illmatic’ To Open Tribeca Film Festival

A documentary on a New York classic - Nas’ “Illmatic” album - will kick off this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
The doc, titled “Time Is Illmatic,” debuts Wednesday, April 16th. It tells the story behind an album that signalled the second golden era of New York hip-hop. The recording, which came out nearly two decades earlier - on April 19th, 1994 - set the stage for Notorious B.I.G.’s debut, “Ready To Die,” which appeared five months later. Together, those two works certified a fresh reign of NYC rap.
Nas will also perform the album front to back, in a show to take place right after the movie screens.

This marks the second year in a row that Tribeca has chosen a music-related film as its opener. In 2013, the downtown fest began with the movie “Mistaken For Strangers,” which pivoted around Brooklyn’s biggest alterna-rock band, The National.

“Time is Illmatic” is directed by multimedia artist One9, and written by Erik Parker. It covers Nas’ background in the Queensbridge Projects, his musical family, as well as the disc’s creation.
"I want to thank the Tribeca Film Festival for supporting the film with the incredible platform they've built over the years," said Nas in a statement. "It's an honor to premiere this film in my hometown. I also want to thank One9 and Erik Parker...Those guys and I come from the same place and era, which gives the doc an authenticity that is important to me."

The Tribeca Film Festival will announce this year’s full line-up in the first week of March. The fest runs April 16th through the 27th.

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