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Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
Michael Rapaport (USA, Special Presentations)
Saturday, April 30, 6:30 p.m.
TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King Street West)
It’s probably (well, definitely) unfair, but we can’t help grimacing at the fact that Michael Rapaport made a film about A Tribe Called Quest. Maybe it’s because the image of Rapaport as a sleazy TV exec falsely justified in his repeated use of the n-word in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled is burned into our mind. Call it a variation on the Polanski Paradox, which necessitates separating art and artist, but we still can’t really swallow it.
But whatever. Michael Rapaport made a movie. Fine. Good for him. And you know what? He actually pulled off something pretty great. Beats, Rhymes & Life overflows with Rapaport’s bubbling enthusiasm for the NYC hip-hop giants, which a big, mainstream doc about a great group a lot of people love pretty much demands. Rapaport may not insert himself in any meaningful way (mostly interjecting from behind the camera to ask obvious questions or interject with some toady praise), but that his presence is left largely unfelt services the film.
Beginning with Tribe rapper/producer Q-Tip’s mild post-show breakdown during their 2008 tour, Beats rewinds to the early days of Tribe members (Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi) from their grade school friendships to their instrumental role in giving shape to New York’s super-posi, Afrocentric hip-hop scene in the late ’80s, to their major label success and the stresses it put on them. The group’s internal drama (for the most part, everyone just bumps against Q-Tip’s perfectionist ego) is pretty by-the-numbers, but it is presented with lucidity, insight, and humour. Rounded out by some lively original animation, and Tribe’s still-original tracks, Beats, Rhymes, & Life may not be a revelation, but it’s a wholly entertaining fan tribute. Touché, Michael Rapaport. Touché.