Day 84 Beats, Rhymes & Life: The
Travels of A Tribe Called Quest [2011 Documentary]
Director Michael Rapaport
Cinematography Robert Benavides
Music
Composition Madlib (& A Tribe
Called Quest)
Subject Chronicling
the rise of hip-hop sensations A Tribe Called Quest, as well as a deeper look
at the tumultuous group dynamics that have troubled them.
Production Rival Pictures, Om Films
IMDb 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes 90%
I
was always going to enjoy this documentary really. They would have had to screw
it up big time for me not to like it even a little bit. The mad Michael
Rapaport documents the beginnings, middle, end and new beginnings of the iconic
hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest. My favourite thing about documentaries of
this ilk is that you get to hear your ultimate playlist songs in the context of
the place and time that they came out. There is something incredibly exciting
about hearing other famous producers and artists talk about lyrics and music
that they like and getting hyped about it. I don’t think there was enough in
this documentary. In the Nas documentary there was more of a focus on the music
and Nas’ ground breaking ‘Illmatic’ album that shot him straight into the
history books. This documentary does a bit of that, but it gets a bit boring as
it is mostly just a timeline of the group. The only other interesting bit was
learning about the shaky relationship between Phife and Q, whilst poor old Ali had
to stand by and wonder why. A Tribe Called Quest are arguably
my favourite artists of all time, so I enjoyed this no end, but mostly because
I couldn’t sit still whenever there was music playing. However, it gave a
deeper look into the group dynamic that I almost wish I hadn’t discovered. The
documentary is more of a love letter to Phife Dawg, who has sadly since
passed away from the very same illness we learn so much about in this film. Maybe
Rapaport wasn’t the best choice of director, he was trying to eke out a story that
should have been left a bit longer and seemed to concentrate more on Phife than
the other three. I’d like to believe that the Quest I see in interviews and
music videos is the one that really existed. When’s the last time you heard a
funky diabetic?
Subject
Matter 2 / 4
Shock
Factor 1 / 4
Production 3 / 4
Music 4 / 4
HMD rating 2.5
/ 4