They may have had only five albums to their credit, but A Tribe Called Quest left a legacy in hip-hop that reverberates in the industry to this day. And in an era where biopics about musicians have seemingly cooled, actor Michael Rapaport has done what many fans of the band wish they could do: figure out what went wrong.
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest is Rapaport’s look at the band (Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White) and their rise, and fall, from the heights of hip hop. A Tribe Called Quest was a hip hop group from New York that helped transform the genre in the ‘90s. Rising out of the Run DMC fueled era of rap in the ‘80s, ATCQ blended a different approach to the more hardcore direction that had marked some of the more signature acts of their era. More playful, mixing jazz-centric approaches with a playful rhyming scheme, ATCQ released five albums and were on top of the genre when they disbanded seemingly out of the blue.
There were plenty of questions still remaining and leave it to a mediocre character actor to try to answer them. A big fan of the group, Rapaport combines interviews with the four as well as musical greats of the genre from yesteryear and today to discuss the band and its influence, legacy, et al. His focus is on the dynamic between Phife Dawg and Q-Tip, who fueled the group’s rise with their rhymes and strong friendship. Letting them tell their story from their unique vantage points, we get to see how the group rose to fame from the Boroughs of New York to headlining arenas all over the country.
Resisting the urge to not be front and center, Rapaport lets the band do most of the talking as they discuss everything about their origins and their feelings regarding it. And this isn’t one with rose-colored glasses, either, as Rapaport gets the band to open up about everything. This is the rise and fall of the band, with their uncensored and remarkably honest feelings about all of it. There’s a remarkable level of candor as Rapaport has tight questions and a real knack of bringing out the raw, honest feelings of the band from their own mouths. But the more interesting thing about this film is that he just doesn’t let A Tribe Called Quest dominate the proceedings.
By bringing in modern artists like Common and Pharrell, amongst others, to discuss how they were influenced we get a sense of their historic importance. It’s easy to let a band and their handlers, managers, et al, discuss how big a band was without any sort of context to it. By bringing in some of the biggest hip-hop artists of the time, as well as plenty of ones from the era in which they were most prominent, you get a sense of just how important they were to the progression of hip hop. Their breakup, seemingly out of nowhere, is treated with a remarkably deft touch.
All four members get a chance to discuss how they felt and what they were experiencing when it all ended. With a tight narrative about their origins setting it up, we feel the anger from Phife as he discusses why he felt betrayed because of the apparent dishonesty in it all. Q-Tip has a dissenting opinion, of course, and their dynamic carries the film. This is their film and Rapaport lets them carry it and tell the story of ATCQ in only the way they could.
A good documentary about music is hard to find. Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest may be in limited release but it’s well worth tracking down.
Director: Michael Rapaport
