Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (Michael Rapaport; 2011)

As a historical document of A Tribe Called Quest, Beats, Rhymes & Life does a great job telling the story of the first three albums (People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, The Low End Theory, and Midnight Marauders) and of giving a solid overview of the Native Tongues movement. The group’s last two albums (Beats, Rhymes & Life and The Love Movement) are glossed over in order to give more time over their contentious 2008 reunion tour. I would have liked a little more coverage of the break up, as well as more details on those final albums (their collaboration with J. Dilla on Beats, especially), but Q-Tip and Phife’s on again off again friendship certainly makes for compelling viewing, even if all of their disputes come off as rather childish on both ends. The film ends on a hopeful note with Tribe reuniting again in the summer of 2010, seemingly a lot happier to be spending time with each other than they were in ‘08. If you like A Tribe Called Quest, there’s much to learn and be entertained by here, and if you don’t like A Tribe Called Quest, what’s wrong with you?