PREVIEW: Beats Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

As part of this year’s Glasgow Music and Film Festival, both The GFT and Cineworld will be holding a screening of Michael Rapaport’s feature length documentary on one of Hip Hop’s most influential groups A Tribe Called Quest. Rapaport explores the often turbulent relationship between band members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammed and Jarobi, from their early days in Queens, New York to their rise to fame, and through the making of their five albums. The film combines early footage of the groups performances and interviews throughout the late eighties and nineties documenting the making of the first three albums, Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, The Low and Theory and Midnight Marauders, and the challenges they face making their fourth and fifth albums before the group officially split. The love/hate relationship between group members and old friends Q-Tip and Phife comes to a tense climax during the making of the penultimate album Beats, Rhymes and Life which marks the beginning of the end for the Tribe. However, Rapaport joins the group in 2010 when they reunite to perform at Rock the Bells festival after Phife’s health problems put the group’s disputes into perspective. Interviews from De La Soul, The Beastie Boys, Common, Pharrell Williams and many more illustrate just how influential Tribe’s jazz inspired beats are in the music industry. Beats Rhymes and Life is both funny and in parts touching, but the highlight of the film has to of course be the music itself.

SHOWINGS:

@ Cineworld on Wed 22nd Feb, 1pm and

@ Glasgow Film Theatre on Sat 25th Feb, 10.45 pm.

(see respective websites for more information about tickets etc)

By Ruby McDougall

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