It's been three years since his last album, 'Life Is Good', and now rap fans everywhere are getting restless for more material from 90s legend Nas, who's currently touring in celebration of the 21st anniversary of his epic landmark debut album 'Illmatic' - and he's still got a lot to say about it.

Nas 1993Nas became a rap legend with his debut album 'Illmatic'

There's a buzz circling Nas at the moment suggesting he's on his way with another studio album - and it couldn't come sooner. We'd be glad for him to go back to his 'Illmatic' roots - which was so passionately explored in the 2014 documentary 'Nas: Time Is Illmatic' - now 90s music is making a strong comeback. 'Time Is Illmatic', written by journalist Erik Parker and directed by ONE9 in his directorial debut, saw the likes of Alicia Keys, Busta Rhymes and Pharrell Williams opening up on why it was such an important album - and Nas reckons it's the 'timeless' quality that still hits people.

More: Watch the trailer for 'Nas: Time Is Illmatic'

Talking about his track 'NY State Of Mind', Nas says it represents the urban grit of New York today as much as it did in the 90s. 'The music just spoke to the people that needed to know what was in my head and what it was like in the minds of everybody in New York', he said. 'There's a lot of things that put you in a place where you don't know if you're gonna make it. Your neighbour who has just died, and there's maggots crawling underneath the door from their body, OD.'

This everyday drama was a reality for Nas growing up, and thinking about his childhood inspired 'Memory Lane' - even if he was only a teenager at the time of writing it. 'How am I talking about 'memory lane' when I'm damn near a kid? The reason why is because I was forced to live a faster life as a kid', he explains. 'So I felt like I was a grown man when I was 14.'

Living the fast life brought a lot of prejudices with it when teaming up with high profile members of the music industry. Notably while he was shooting the gritty low budget video for 'Illmatic''s first single 'Halftime' in Queensbridge, which he released for the 'Zebrahead' soundtrack with producer Large Professor. 'First time seeing it I wanted a more clear video. I wanted a bigger budget, I wanted a video like all the stars had', he confesses, even though he recognised how true the rawness of it was to his style. 'But there was a lot of things messed up behind the scenes with working on the video... The people at the label thought I was crazy - probably, I just wasn't sensitive to a young audience doing this first video - they treated me like s**t. The directors and everybody were cool but as a whole collective I'd like to say f**k all of them.'

More: Watch Nas dicussing his 'Halftime' woes

On reflection though, Nas understands he can't dwell on that kind of stuff now that he's a Platinum selling superstar. 'They couldn't stop me even though they treated me like s**t, like just some old hoodlum from the street, we still made it happen and I still can't be mad at the end of the day. So I take the 'f**k you' back', he concludes.

Indeed, working on 'Illmatic' was a golden moment in Nas' life and one that he'll never forget. He got to work with a range of talented producers including Q-Tip, Pete Rock and Large Professor, but one of his best memories was when he was secured to sample his hero Michael Jackson's 1983 hit 'Human Nature' for his song 'It Ain't Hard To Tell'. 'With Michael Jackson being one of my faves, it was incredible for me to have that as a record', he recalls. 'Being signed on the same label as Michael was like the man upstairs made that happen.'

More: Watch Nas opening up about working with his father

Nas is set to play Osheaga Festival in Montreal on July 31st 2015.