Baz Lurhmann has revealed Nas is helping him as a producer for his new Netflix series The Get Down.

The director, whose films include The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge! and Romeo And Juliet, said the rapper has been “a huge creative force” on the project, Entertainment Weekly (EW) reports.

The 13-episode music driven drama starring Jaden Smith will focus on a crew of South Bronx teenagers in New York City in the 1970s and how the city, on the brink of bankruptcy, gave birth to hip-hop, punk and disco.

According to EW, Lurhmann told a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival how Nas was particularly helping him write the raps for a character in the show – a successful rap star in the 90s.

The 53-year-old, who also directed Strictly Ballroom and Australia, said: “One of the great collaborations is that I’ve been working really closely in creating these rhymes, and he’s a producer on the film, with one of the most iconic voices of the ’90s and that’s Nas. And so Nas has been this other huge creative force in the production. And it’s been playing really, really successfully.”

He described the rhymes as “somewhere between pure rap, narration, and sort of Greek chorus comment” and added: “We weren’t sure about it when we began, and we couldn’t do without it now. And [Nas has] been fantastic in that regard.”

Luhrmann, who is executive producer of The Get Down, will direct the first two episodes and the season finale.

The series will premiere on Netflix on August 12.