Holy smokes! Michael Rappaport got skillz! This is easily my favorite documentary about hip hop ever and Top 10 for music in general. For me, that is a statement. I love music docs. Music docs are an obsession and I 've watched even mediocre ones a dozen times, but Beats, Rhymes & Life makes me want to go buy the Blu Ray, hook up the stereo, and crank the dial. It is a mix of old school hip hop history, the persistence of artistic vision, and the story of a group so influential they've become almost impossible to quantify.
Directed by the aforementioned Michael Rappaport, an actor and notorious hip hop aficionado known for his roles in flicks like Higher Learning and his time on Boston Public, this film tells the story of A Tribe Called Quest. If you neither know nor own any of their music, chances are you will by the end of this movie. As a drummer, it was these "Native Tongue" and early hip hop groups like Run DMC that I always gravitated towards when I was searching for grooves to lay under rock and roll. Tribe might have been the best. Their loops were always tight and bottom heavy but without all the over tweaked low end you get on modern rap albums. They carried with them a soul that changed the game and transcended the genre. They were jazz, they were R&B, they were street, they were poetry and it's about time their story was on film.
For a first dip into the feature film pool, Rappaport displays a keen knowledge of how to capture life and infuse it with history, a skill required for good documentary filmmaking. He lets the players talk (and they do!) and tell their story all while following them through a new resurgence of performance. They're a group that has over two decades of history, and no stone is left unturned. The beauty of the way the collection of images, old and new footage and interviews is assembled is the power of Tribes music. Throughout, you cannot help but bob your head and feel the flow of their tracks whether it lays underneath the scene or is cranked up in the mix. Everything is tied together with a perfect bow as if it was that dream Christmas gift you didn't even know you'd asked for.
I don't know what else to say without sounding like some schill blowing endless smoke up this film's arse. You have to see it. You must do yourself the favor of seeing it. If you grew up in the 80s it is required viewing. A fantastic doc from beginning to end.
Grade: A+
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