Oscar-nominated actor Jonah Hill stepped behind the camera for his directorial debut Mid90s, a coming-of-age film centered around a 13-year-old boy who finds himself through skateboarding. To give authenticity to the ‘90s era of skateboarding depicted in the movie, Hill filled the soundtrack with hip-hop songs that he grew up listening to. For the latest episode of For The Record, the Hollywood star sat down with Genius’ Head of Artist Relations Rob Markman to discuss Mid90s and his ingrained love for hip-hop.

“A big reason I made the film is because hip-hop, like skateboarding, is always misused in film. It’s always shown someone driving through the hood or popping champagne,” Hill tells Genius. “To me, it’s the emotional backbone of my growing up. So, I needed to make a film that could elegantly portray that [A Tribe Called Quest] is to me what the Beatles were to my parents… To actually make a film that shows even fancy people that this is a real art form. This is real art. It’s going down in the catalog with classical music 100 years from now, and DJ Premier is Mozart.”

Hill describes growing up in L.A. on West Coast hip-hop like Souls of Mischief and The Pharcyde, while also learning about East Coast rappers through Stretch and Bobbito tapes sent by his uncle. He compares A Tribe Called Quest to The Beatles, with Q-Tip being John Lennon. “[Q-Tip] is one of the truest artists I’ve ever met,” Hill explains. “I interviewed him for this magazine that I did for A24. If you ask him questions about life, you just sometimes sit for a minute after ‘cause you’re like, 'How the fuck are you so smart?’”

For his Top 5 rappers dead or alive, Hill names off A Tribe Called Quest, Big L, Mobb Deep, Gang Starr, and Kendrick Lamar. He declares Kendrick as the future of hip-hop as well as “one of the most singular important artists” today. Adding that Drake and Kendrick are two of the lifetime Hall of Fame artists of this era, Hill explains that the latter rapper is “important in what he’s saying as well as just pushing things musically.”

Check out the full interview above and stayed tuned for another new episode of For The Record later this week.