Friday, June 17, 2011

Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest

I've certainly been interested to see Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest since I first heard of it, but I can't say I've been as anxious as a lot of heads seem to be. For one, I've always liked A Tribe Called Quest, but they've never been a personal favorite. Like, if you told me there was a collection of never before heard, vintage Tribe Called Quest tracks behind Door #1, and never before heard vintage Juice Crew tracks behind Door #2... you would have to remind me next week what the heck was behind Door #1 again. That's just where I'm coming from as a fan.

And the other thing is that: we've been hearing about this movie for ages, but every blog or article everywhere has been on the drama between the members. Either they're calling each other out in the press, or they're holding the film back or boycotting the screenings, or half of them are calling the other half out for holding the film back and boycotting the screenings. I love hip-hop music. Celebrity gossip, on the other hand, I'm not into. And it's not so much that I couldn't separate the hype from the actual film, so much as I was worried that the actual film would just be more of the hype: two hours of each member sniping at the others. Turns out that fear was somewhat justified.

It's not a good sign that the film starts out, even before the opening credits, with dramatic pull quotes of the members arguing about each other and the break-up, and then cutting to a frustrated Q-Tip talking about how they'd never perform together again. But then, once the credits roll, that was all but forgotten. For the next 45 minutes or so, we had nothing but a fresh retrospective of the career of Tribe, with in-depth interviews with members, managers and other artists. All their highlights are covered, their early lives, behind-the-scenes introspection so even the biggest Tribe fans will find themselves learning new insights into the group. We get into Phife's health problems and Jarobe's life outside the group when he "boated" after the first album. This is easily one of the best hip-hop documentaries I've seen, and I highly recommend it.

But then, yeah, the film gets too side-tracked by the drama. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the film shouldn't have covered the break-up or the animosity the members (mainly Tip and Phife) felt for each other at different times... If all of that was skipped over, I would've accused this film of white-washing and being just a shallow press piece. But the film just lingers on it, and we watch so much footage of them just arguing over absolutely nothing and calling each other out over and over. It just feels like the filmmakers thought, "this is where the money is" and included every ounce of footage they could squeeze out of the drama, whether it was worthy of inclusion or not.

And that's all the more frustrating because of what was left out. Only one of Tribe's managers is given one single sentence to bring up how J Dilla was brought into the production team for the final album, and fans were curious what Consequence was doing there. No one answers that question or addresses these topics, or how that changed the dynamics of the group. There's a super-short, maybe 30 second, clip referencing Tip's solo career (he mentions he was surprised to be getting 5 mics), and from watching this documentary you would never even know that Phife put out solo records. Tip's solo album that was unreleased for so long and was such a controversial mystery in hip-hop? Unmentioned. Ali's album on Penalty Records? Unmentioned ...though there is a single sentence where he mentions his group Lucy Pearl. But a single name-dropping sentence is hardly deep documentary filmmaking. And all the great hip-hop nerd stuff we'd love to see answered, like the many versions of "Scenario," with different MCs on them? Unmentioned.

It seems like the second half of this documentary was discarded in favor of celebrity gossip. And maybe commercially that was the right decision. It's certainly giving the film tons and tons of press and message board action. But artistically, it's a let down. Of course the break-up had to be in there. The war of personalities was, in some ways, the heart of the story. But when we get into a drawn-out segment of them arguing over how Phife nudged Tip while walking on-stage but it might've been too much like a push... I feel like the great documentary has been switched off, and somebody's changed the channel to a trashy reality TV show made for the E! channel instead.

At the end of the day, though, this is still the most substantive documentary on Tribe we'll ever get, and one of the best hip-hop documentaries the film world has produced so far. And I'm betting/hoping, when the DVD finally comes out, there'll be plenty of bonus footage that covers most of the subjects they trimmed away in order to make room for the drama; and then we'll really have a definitively rewarding Tribe documentary on our hands.

9 comments:

  1. I completely agree with you here, Werner. Nothing left to say but i'll continue anyway. I enjoyed watching this but was cringing when the drama was getting so much attention here. And, like you said, that time could have been used on "documenting" more info that we all would've liked to hear. I was half drunk to almost fully drunk by the end of the film, was there any more real info on Kid Hood revealed? I think I would have remembered that if so.

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  2. I look forward to seeing this when it comes to KC in August. There's a lot of other groups out there worthy of in-depth documentaries as well. Too bad Public Enemy's didn't get more exposure.

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  3. you seem to forget that this is a documentary. it's not meant to "cater" to your personal interests. example-you didn't hear much about dilla because(duh!), it's not a film about dilla. get it? and if you're not serious tribe fan i wouldn't recommend seeing this at all. i personally loved it.

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  4. As a serious Tribe fan, Darrell, you know Dilla was a part of Ummah, the production team of Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed and Dilla, who produced The Love Moment and other Tribe stuff (like "1nce Again" and a lot of Q-Tip solo stuff). But you'd never know that from watching this documentary; because while it starts out talking about the music, by the time it gets to the fourth and fifth albums, it barely mentions them (as I said, one literal sentence mentions Dilla as an aside). The film starts out promisingly talking about the production, the music, behind the scenes of the albums were recorded... But all of that gets dropped like a hot potato because the film just wants to focus on the bickering instead. How can you have an in-depth Tribe documentary that doesn't even tell us that Ali and Phife had solo albums? That doesb't even mention The Ummah, or Tip's solo projects throughout the 90's and early 2000's.

    Nowhere do I suggest the film should cater to my personal interests; let's not get childish. However, I do suggest that a documentary that's being presented as the Tribe doc of all Tribe docs shouldn't just ignore 50% of their music and career in favor of cheap "drama." Like I said in my review, bringing in Dilla as essentially a new member of the group (which, for all practical purposes he was) surely changed the dynamics. Why not ask how Phife felt about being pushed out while a new guy was being taken in and built up in his stead? If you want to talk about the Phife/Tip riff, that's a more interesting way to tackle it than the "he almost nudged me getting up onto the stage" junk. But these major aspects of the Tribe story don't get addressed, which is a shame I think is a shame.

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  5. "Nowhere do I suggest the film should cater to my personal interests; let's not get childish."

    o.k. werner,how about when you just said....

    1."by the time it gets to the fourth and fifth albums, it barely mentions them"(dilla,phife)

    2."doesn't even tell us that Ali and Phife had solo albums?"

    3."That doesb't even mention The Ummah, or Tip's solo projects throughout the 90's and early 2000's."

    bottom line is,this was a film about the break-up of a tribe called quest.like it or not. i could go on and on about what i felt they could have covered,like,q-tip's production for other artists like run-dmc,losing his record collection in a fire,dilla's production with phife,ali's solo projects,etc. have you ever seen a music doc before. i knew what to expect from this right away. being a huge tribe fan i was happy to see things like,their old neighborhood,family moments,studio experiences,etc. this was not a movie based on some book,again,this is a music doc. lots of people complain about the fighting and phife's health but the fact is these are the biggest issues by far to cover. have you seen any of the dilla docs? how much coverage of a tribe called quest did they cover???
    this is a great doc. if anyone feels short-changed they should made their own doc and cover what they feel.

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  6. darrell, do you understand the concept of a review? why are you so bent out of shape that werner pointed out what he disliked about the doc.? you put the word cater in quotes even though he never used the word once in his review. all he did was point out, what he felt, were the weaknesses and strengths of the documentary. it's a review... get it?

    1. "This is easily one of the best hip-hop documentaries I've seen, and I highly recommend it."

    2. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the film shouldn't have covered the break-up or the animosity the members (mainly Tip and Phife) felt for each other at different times... If all of that was skipped over, I would've accused this film of white-washing and being just a shallow press piece. But the film just lingers on it..."

    3. "...one of the best hip-hop documentaries the film world has produced so far."

    it's called giving a balanced (as opposed to fanboy) opinion.

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  7. Well said anonymous.

    Lol at darrell, no offense, but you said:
    "bottom line is,this was a film about the break-up of a tribe called quest"

    Was it supposed to be that though? It's titled "The Travels.." not "The Break Up...".

    When a documentary focuses so much on one controversial aspect like that, then i think it leaves it pretty open to criticism. I've seen many many docus, and I still say they could have explored much more stuff instead of wasting so much time on the silly internal beef.

    Again, I loved the doc and will cop when it drops. and i mean no offense, I make a fool of myself more than 75% of the time when i type on my keyboard. I'm sure I just have once again here. :p

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  8. so then we all agree that our comments are based on personal opinion. so like i said,we can all talk about what could have been different about this doc,but instead,let's just enjoy what we have. i thought it was a great story!

    p.s. the "cater" was for emphasis,not a quote.

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  9. Alas, a DVD release and virtually no bonus material...SMH...

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