Beats Rhymes & Life: Travels of Tribe Called Quest [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

First off: I loved Phife from jump. He became a better MC on the 2nd album but there is something fantastic about hearing an MC when they are an unpolished diamond. I wouldn't change anything about his contribution to People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. I always respected Q-Tip as the leader of the group. That is undeniable. However, there was never a Tribe without Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Jarobi, Phife AND Q-Tip together. Everybody played an indispensable role in making ATCQ what it became.

A Tribe Called Quest are like the standard of greatness to me. They are my favorite music group. Outside of my friends and family I love them more than anything. When I think of great collaborating vocalists I put Q-Tip and Phife at the top of the pile. That includes John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Andre 300 and Big Boi and Run and DMC. Their chemistry was so perfect that it just seemed like it was meant to be. I was a great fan of hip-hop. I was a total hip-hop junkie BEFORE they came out. Then Jungle Brothers came along - then De La Soul - then A Tribe Called Quest. I never knew that I could have such a deep appreciation for something until they flipped the script on the music paradigm.

Michael Rapaport did an amazing job. I am awestruck that the first choice for a feature length hip-hop documentary that played in movie theaters was made for A Tribe Called Quest. They sold millions of records but they never sold records like Eminem, Jay-Z, Tupac or Biggie (or quite a few other acts). Not even close. The choice of A Tribe Called Quest was a wise choice. Their influence has now spanned at least two generations of hip-hop. Every Tribe fan that I know is a die hard loyalist like myself.

I do not think that the "beef" did anything to tarnish their legacy. The documentary elevated them in my view. It seems like being in a band where you are around each other constantly is a great training ground for marriage. Eventually, you will perceive negatives in each other. Navigating those negatives and achieving a goal for the greater good is what a working relationship is all about.

I accepted the break up when it happened. I prepared myself for it beforehand. I always figured something that beautiful would never last. I grew up with their music. I started a successful business listening to their music. One of the first conversations that I had with my future wife was about A Tribe Called Quest. That conversation never ended. They taught me that details are important and to follow through on your vision.

A Tribe Called Quest - THANK YOU. Michael Rapaport - THANK YOU. To the entire Native Tongue family - THANK YOU. Listening to The Low End Theory for the first time remains the most exciting moment of my life. My wife knows that if I pass before she does - Can I Kick It? MUST be played at my funeral.

They turned me into someone who fought with his mind. One day (years after their break up) I was watching MTV and they were playing a Tribe performance of Can I Kick It? from 1998. My wife said that I was watching with a look of pain in my eyes. She lovingly rubbed my head and didn't say a word until the clip ended. I listen to their music all of the time. However, seeing them live was like reopening an old wound that never quite healed. This documentary completed the healing process for me.

Thank you Michael Rapaport, for taking the time and energy to film this documetary about the very talented and soulful ATCQ.
I've loved ATCQ since the early 90s. As a kid, their albums were the few that my mother would purchase for me, as they didn't have parental advisory warnings on them. I assumed that this documentary, directed by Michael Rapaport, would re-visit and re-open those days and this music that was so positive and so absolutely refreshing in contrast to ATCQ's less creative less optimistic 'hip hop' contemporaries
Unfortunately, this documentary has a very negative overtone which overshadows the uplifting and healing music that ATCQ produced in the 90s.
As a fan, I understand, through having read countless articles, that Phife and Q-Tip have had a rocky relationship: so what? This should not have been the bedrock, the foundation, of this film. Perhaps this was unintentional. A little more work, however, could have revealed a less abrasive plot line to follow. I felt the abrasiveness of this documentary from the beginning, as Phife spoke about his relationship to Q-Tip. This continued to the end of the film, when Q-Tip was not present at the film's debut. Michael Rapaport, this did not have to be your plot line. I wish you'd picked a more positive narrative to follow.

I think that I speak for a lot of ATCQ's more astute fans, when I say that we would have loved to have learned more about how the brilliant Ron Carter came to work on "The Low End Theory." Or how the Q-Tip, Large Professor and Pete Rock combined their powers for their various projects. Or what about the very "purrrrrrty" (says Mos Def in Black Star liner notes) Vinia Mojica? What about the Ummah? What about the Soulquarians? Where did Consequence come from? Did Ali Shaheed Muhammad contribute to album production? And Christ, how about we get into Neo Soul, a little bit. ?Love (in "Fantastic Volume 1"'s liner notes) says that "Midnight Marauders" was responsible for giving birth to the entire neo soul music movement, which continues, fantastically to this day. Michael Rapaport, I wish you'd have taught me; taught me and made me feel fantastic like ATCQ's albums always did.

There are great and beautiful parts to this documentary: animation, great interviews, great shots, video clips, etc. They are, however, unfortunately overshadowed by the plot line.

This music, and these three (sometimes y) talented men have touched a countless number of people through soul lifting intelligent music. They did not deserve to be cast in this light. I don't think that things should have been left out. I just feel that this film's through-line should have relfected, without blemish, their beautiful and positive music.
It's not too late, Mr. Rapaport. You can always make a sequel : )

This is an amazing documentary. My hats go off to everyone involved. There are things you would not believe went on behind the scenes just by looking at the picture of this legendary hiphop group.
I cannot stop watching this.
If you are a TRUE hiphop fan and not a overnight or band wagon fan just to get attention from someone, this DVD is for you.