Product Details

• Actors: Q-Tip, Phife Dawg
• Directors: Michael Rapaport
• Format: AC-3, Blu-ray, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French
• Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
• DVD Release Date: October 18, 2011
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B004Z29WX0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,698 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest [Blu-ray]" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When a Tribe Called Quest emerged from Queens in the 1980s, there wasn't another hip-hop outfit that sounded exactly like them. Their unique mix of jazz, funk, and creatively conscious lyrics struck a chord, but 10 years later, they called it a day. In his first feature, actor/filmmaker Michael Rapaport, a native New Yorker, charts their history, celebrates their success, and tries to figure out what went wrong. He starts with their origins "on the boulevard of Linden" before turning to Phife Dawg's move to Atlanta and the Rock the Bells Tour, for which they reunited, only to fall apart again. The group members, including Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jabroni White, tell the story in their own words, while admirers, like De La Soul and the Roots, testify to their impact. With editorial assistance from director A.J. Schnack (Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns), Rapaport focuses on the relationship between Phife and Q-Tip, who share the same sort of yin and yang chemistry that has fueled legendary acts from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin. A "funky diabetic" in casual garb, Phife enjoys sports as much as music, while the dapper Q-Tip can't imagine doing anything else. The two have even differed over the film; while Phife has helped to promote it, Q-Tip has been publicly dismissive, but Rapaport is about as fair as a dispirited fan can be, and he concludes with an engagement in Japan where the two put their egos aside--at least for a few hours. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

A Tribe Called Quest has been one of the most commercially successful and artistically significant musical groups in recent history. The band’s sudden break-up in 1998 shocked the industry and saddened the scores of fans, whose appetite for the group’s innovative musical stylings never seem to diminish. This insightful film, directed by Michael Rapaport, takes viewers on a behind-the-scenes journey - chronicling the group's rise to fame and revealing the stories behind the tensions which erupted in the years to come.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work. November 5, 2011

By Cornelius DeMarcus

Format:DVD

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.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars the glass is half empty : ( but doesn't have to be : ) December 18, 2011

By B.A. McGillicutty

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

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 : )

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Heartbeat of Hiphop August 17, 2011

By A. Jacobs Jr.

Format:DVD

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.