Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

Great documentary full of beats in all corners, from the groovy animation style to the way the interviewee rappers talk having a rhythm in everything they say, to the actual song samples that are wedged in to many scene transitions. Love the animation style of the intro and throughout the documentary film. Very colorful and jazz like, full of shakes and bumps. The documentary has a good flow and explores the history of A Tribe Called Quest in a cohesive way while also constructing dramatic tension. What's more the documentary covers subjects who clearly have a strong and loving bond which each other despite their differences, which is always nice to see within the rap world which glorifies argument and the so-called "beef." Everyone here is in touch with their feelings and articulate and they try to be honest with viewers instead of throwing shade. Whether or not Q-Tip is self centered as Phife Dawg claims (RIP) is up for debate, and which the documentary doesn't manage to fully resolve, but I imagine that's something difficult to establish in real life anyway. I could have wished for some more analysis of the creation of the songs themselves, and how they came about, and were produced, but there were bits and pieces throughout. What also would've been helpful is to compare with other hip hop music that existed at the time. All in all solid documentary, and a good foundation for other deep dives should you be interested in other facets of the phenomenonal A Tribe Called Quest.

I love ATCQ and we do get very exciting looks at the birth of hip hop as a creative force of nature. And the iconoclasts, in their attitude, how they dressed, the topics they addressed in their lyrics. We also have the painful moments of the more toxic by the day band dynamics that lead to the breakup until they get back together to release a brilliant swan song album in 2016. I don't think the rift between the two band members is completely made clear in the documentary except it's about one of them feeling disrespected and egos and I think there was more there to unearth by a more skilled film maker. But Rapaport made this film with love.

Hearing the music and seeing the videos in this documentary instantly transported me to a familiar and beloved time and place. ATCQ was one of those defining groups of the 90's. To this day "Scenario" is my favorite collaborative rap song. "Beats, Rhyme & Life" chronicles ATCQ's formation through to their disbanding. Sadder than their disbanding was the beef between Q-Tip and Fife Dawg. As a fan you never want to hear that there are problems in paradise. You want all of your favorite groups to love each other as much as you love them and never separate, but the truth is that families have fights and sometimes never speak again. It was definitely the more difficult part of the documentary to watch. All in all though, I loved the documentary. ATCQ is one of my favorite groups and you don't really see rap groups anymore. They came up in an era when groups were common, and now the only rap group I know is Migos. Things have certainly changed, so I was glad to see this documentary to remind me of how things used to be.

I enjoyed this film tremendously. Beats, Rhymes and Life tells the story of a tremendous pioneer in the art form of Hip Hop and young men that grew up together as a creative entity. The ultimate success and longevity of any group is driven by the interpersonal relationship. Micheal Rapaport shows the complexity of the personal relationships as the group matured and it's impact on the business. I was a casual fan of "A Tribe Called Quest" going in ... I feel much more connected to the music and the group upon leaving the theater. I highly recommend this film for anyone, casual or committed fan or if you've never heard of this group.

If you grew up with rap and were a fan when Tribe was in their prime, you absolutely will not want to miss this. Michael Rapaport and crew brilliantly document this most ubiquitous, inventive and also accessible group of it's generation. I had to hold back the tears as I revisited those special times of my youth. Being a rap fan and beat maker since the 80's, I now know who was the man behind the productions of their first three legendary(understatement) albums, as the credits on their records always attributed production to the Tribe itself and not one person(that person is Q-Tip). Not that Ali is not also an incredible musician and producer in his own right as evidenced in his post-Tribe super group Lucy Pearl and other production works. As for Phife, you'll just have to see his remarkable story for yourself... Speaking of Ali, one thing that really stayed with me, his statement about the spiritual and creative benefit of moving on, trying something new, not forgetting the past but working towards the future. In fact, this motto has been employed by all members of the Tribe beginning with Jarobi, who early in the 90's when the Tribe was on the rise decided to leave the group(albeit with an open door policy) to pursue another passion of his that has rewarded him success and happiness. Many times our most celebrated creative heroes end up on a downward self destructive path and fall from grace, or they refuse to leave behind their formulas and habits at a detriment to their growth and their health, but these guys are champions in life, they are all leading rewarding lives doing some unexpected things, yet still make time to go on tour together. The time during which rap music was truly GREAT was short lived, maybe just a couple years....and it flashed past in the blink of an eye. This documentary will take you there, so much so you won't want to come back! BTW I really, really, REALLY hope this isn't the last of Michael Rapaport's documentaries on Hip-Hop, clearly he is the man for the job.

A Tribe Called Quest is one the most enduring groups of hip hop's Golden Age. Combining jazzy loops with hard-hitting snares and fronted by two unique MCs/ personalities in Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, they banged out three classic albums in the early 90s. They were intelligent, innovative and had great chemistry. I can still vividly remember the news that they broke up: it confirmed the end of rap's heyday, not unlike The Beatles' break-up effectively ended the feel good 60s. So yes, they deserved a 90-minute documentary. And "Beats, Rhymes and Life" delivers at this most basic level, telling us about the Tribe's travels in a very straightforward manner, which is good for (casual) fans. Michael Rapaport hits the right notes here: he cuts between classic songs, classic clips and solid - sometimes funny - anecdotes by the Jungle Brothers, Black Thought, Prince Paul, Jarobi, Dres, Common, De La Soul, Red Alert and Chris Lighty, to name a few. Q-Tip gets the most airtime, and the man has charisma to spare. However, the story arc also aims to please non-fans and revolves around the break-up. It focuses heavily on the tensions within the group - especially between erstwhile best friends Q-Tip and Phife - and the drama that surrounds it until today. This setup helps avoid the dreaded "old men reminiscing about the good old days" effect found in many documentaries, but it still left me wondering: is this really the essence of the Tribe? We all know the group process can drive people crazy - we've seen it in a million rockumentaries. Meanwhile, the protagonists barely get to talk about the things that made them special: their creative vision, the development of their monumental sound, the risks they took. Still, recommended for everybody, especially fans of Seaman's furniture. The music will win you over - Madlib's original soundtrack also rocks!

I've always been a hip hop fan and was always interested in A Tribe Called Quest. Before watching it, I knew a couple of their songs, but not enough. I was hoping to leave the movie theater ending up a huge Quest fan. Unfortunately, this didn't happen immediately, because the documentary didn't focus on the music as much as I would have liked it to. This movie did inspire me to do some research and about 3 weeks later, I have learned pretty much everything about A Tribe Called Quest. I was surprised about how much drama and how many problems behind the scenes they had. Phife Dawg (the 2nd MC of A Tribe Called Quest) suffers from diabetes and Q-Tip (the leader of A Tribe Called Quest) "took the gym teacher approach with Phife" and that eventually broke the group up. Q-Tip would push Phife into working-out and eating right, but Phife couldn't get over his food/sugar addictions and he resented Q-Tip for this. This resentment eventually escalates to the point where they could not and should not stay as a group. If their no love, they should split up. Unfortunately, Ali (a 3rd member of Quest) was stuck in the middle of these arguments and just watch friendships end. The story has an upsetting ending, but I now understand why the group has broken up. A Tribe Called Quest was really a revolutionary group for hip hop and they made incredible music. Their are also a lot of interviews from producers and other hip hop artists/groups like: Common, De La Soul, Mos Def, and more. The documentary also has a cool part where Q-Tip uses vinyl 2 turntables to create the beat for Can I Kick It? (their most popular song). I was very impressed with Q-Tip's creativity and intelligence.

"Beats, Rhymes, and Life" does a very good job of exploring A Tribe Called Quest's beginnings as well as it's influence, and is the type of music documentary that all others should look to when trying to tell an artist's story in a impactful and informative way, and it checks off all of the boxes that one should expect such a movie to go through, but it doesn't just cover the group as a whole- it covers all of the members personal lives in a good yet relevant way. The reason why it works better than many other films in this genre is that it covers the bands breakup and fallings out as those things are actually happening; not everything is current and not everything is in hindsight-it's a really healthy and good mix, and that's something I really admire it for. In addition to that, interviews from other musicians that've been impacted by the group's influence do a decent (albeit sometimes generic) job of informing the viewer on the impact the group has actually had. My biggest issue with this film is that it feels a little too long, and sometimes there are interviews that don't feel entirely necessary, and become a little boring and inflate the running time, when what I really want to see is more info from the actual members of the tribe. Overall, I really enjoyed this film and would easily recommend it. 7.4/10

I'm troubled that some reviewers object to the fact that this film doesn't ignore the considerable tensions that existed within A Tribe Called Quest. This is a documentary, not a propaganda film... the backstage dynamics between the members of ATCQ over the years (both positive and negative) are highly relevant to the film, assuming that it wasn't meant as a puff piece. If anything, Rapaport held back a bit MORE than he should have, which is part of the reason why I don't give the film an even higher rating, as I would (for example) to the brutally revealing documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Also, anyone who watches the film and doesn't get some sense of why the group meant so much to so many of us (in its artistry and in its spirit) just wasn't paying attention. I do hope that the DVD extras spend more time on the extended Native Tongue Family... while it certainly isn't ignored in the film, the Native Tongue Family deserves at the very least its own mini- documentary.

I never really thought about the name of the group, but of course if you do a documentary and have such a weird band name, that will be one of the things explored. While this was to be expected, seeing so many high profile musicians giving their insight on how Quest affected them or the music landscape overall, is quite interesting to say the least. And all that by one of the whitest Dudes/actors on this planet. Michael Rappaport created this and he really did good. I would think through the friends he has, he had quite the connections to other artists. Nicely edited, with a coherent line to follow for anyone watching. This could have been an episode of the Netflix show that explores Hip Hop, but let's just see this as an added extra