Remember the movie Brown Sugar? Of course you don’t. That’s because its premise—the culturally unifying love of hip-hop—is not, in itself, sufficient to sustain a movie. The same problem occurs with Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travel

via hiphopmusic.com

PBW is music supervisor to the doc.

It’s one thing to read about it but being able to see the people, their facial expressions, brings another level of understanding. But hey, what is this “Internet Fodder” that Michael speaks of? I have never heard of such a thing.

A music docu that mostly dodges “Behind the Music”-style tall tales or breathless evangelism, Michael Rapaport’s “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest” gives the seminal early ’90s hip-hop group as stylish and intimate a treatment as fans could hope for, paying as much attention to the music in question as it does to the characters who made it. Evergreen interest in the group should provide very healthy ancillary, and a theatrical excursion is certainly a possible scenario.

and yes, the film rightfully addresses the split:

Things turn uncomfortable in the later going, as the group breaks up, then reunites, with festering antagonism between Q-Tip and Phife reaching ugly levels. There’s some startling 2008 footage of a backstage blow-up between the two that nearly turns violent, followed by rather vicious post-mortem commentary. Shortly thereafter, Phife’s health takes a bad turn, requiring a kidney donation from his wife.

Rapaport attempts to put a happier face on things at the end, as the group reunites for a handful of shows, but it feels a bit disingenuous, as tensions clearly still remain. The film also pays somewhat scant attention to the group’s final two albums, which is strange as the penultimate one provides the film with its title.

On the night of the Sundance premier of Rapaport’s Beats, Rhymes & Life, as Phife was being moved to tears by the crowd, Ali Shaheed Muhammad was across the ocean in the UK somewhere getting cam-grilled by an enthused interviewer (peace to Sumit). It leads off with Shaheed alluding to the “secret of our layering aspect” when responding to a question on Tribe’s drums, which he can not fully reveal, possibly out of fear of Q-Tip’s retribution…let me stop. Haha. He then goes on to mention the impact of MC Hood on The Scenario Remix before avoiding a direct question on Q-Tip’s position on the doc and whether or not The Abstract speaks for the entire group. At this point the he said-he said-I said is getting a bit lame so hopefully the headlines don’t get out of hand as the movie gets more coverage. And as Shaheed suggests towards the end, I hope to see the film when it hits New York.

“I think the reason he did his little Twitter thing was because when he realized that the movie was coming to completion and going to get seen by people,” Rapaport said. “I can’t really speak for him but I think he got a little nervous. He’s a very protective of the legacy of A Tribe Called Quest and the movie is a very honest depiction of my time with them and the information that I was given in interviews and content.”

As for the “few requests” Tip said ATCQ made of Rapaport that weren’t acknowledged, the “Higher Learning” actor says Q-Tip wasn’t speaking for the group.

“He was speaking on behalf of himself and his biggest request was to be protective of the legacy of Tribe,” Rapaport said. “So when the film was coming to completion, he got a little bit nervous because he wants to be seen in a certain way.”

And while he’s a loyal ATCQ fan, the director said he wanted to be do the group’s story justice.

“I adore ATCQ and my intention wasn’t to ever make them feel uncomfortable but my intention was never to make a fluff piece so we kind of hit a bump in the road,” he said. “And we promoted [the film together]. Q-Tip and me were on the radio talking about ‘This is going to be the real story of A Tribe Called Quest.’ When I say ‘the real story’ that doesn’t mean that there’s going to be crazy sh–. I didn’t unveil any secrets. From what I’ve learned Q-Tip and Phife have known each other their whole lives and they are like a family. And like any family, like any group — the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, EPMD, Public Enemy — they’ve had bumps in the road. I just think that because A Tribe Called Quest is so precious to fans, they were concerned about unveiling some of those things.”

SATV caught up w/ Rapaport at the ’09 Smoke Out. Last movie I saw him in was Special. Why didn’t that blow up?