BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST directed by Michael Rapaport, with Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White. A Mongrel Media release. 93 minutes. Opens Friday (July 29). See listing
If anyone in Hollywood is capable of directing a documentary on pioneering rap group A Tribe Called Quest, it’s got to be Michael Rapaport. The star of movies like Higher Learning and Cop Land is a first-generation hip-hop head. He grew up with the music, appreciates how much it influenced his adolescence and gets animated when discussing rap legends from Biz Markie to Talib Kweli.
Speaking with me in his thick New Yaawk accent in a Toronto hotel, Rapaport talks about why it was important for him to go back and rediscover one of his favourite rap groups in the new documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life.
He says it was a chance to get more background on the genesis of classic Tribe tracks like Scenario and Excursions, and to find out why the dysfunctional group finally called it quits in 1998.
But more importantly, Rapaport’s Tribe doc serves as a nostalgic portal to an era in hip-hop that long ago ended, when jazz-inflected rhythms and conscious rhymes still meant something.
“The conclusion of that era was something I was curious about and fascinated with,” says Rapaport, whose documentary also features conversations with golden era artists De La Soul and Monie Love. “I wanted to reminisce and inform people about that time in hip-hop and what it meant to me.”
Rapaport dates the end of the golden era to about 1993, the year not only of the last great Tribe album, Midnight Marauders, but also of the rise of the Death Row/Bad Boy beefs that claimed the lives of 2Pac and Biggie.
“The music business and the business of hip-hop changed,” Rapaport recollects with a hint of mourning in his voice. “I still listen to it. I don’t love it as much as I used to. There are a lot of good artists making music – I just think it’s not as significant as it used to be.”
Interview Clips
When the golden era of Hip Hop ended:
His opinion of hip hop today:
How he controls what hip hop his kids listen to:
His opinion on Kanye West:
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