BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST

I'm a huge fan of A Tribe Called Quest, and I was looking forward to seeing Beats Rhymes & Life for a long time... while kind of being skeptical over whether it would come out at all. It was no secret that there were serious issues between director Michael Rapaport (an actor, he's in one of my favorite films, Copland) and the band, particularly Q-Tip. Which is a real shame: Rapaport was clearly doing this for love, not money, it's too bad things got so messsy.

I saw an early trailer on YouTube - it was actually called "Beats, Rhymes and Fights."  I can see where Tip took issue with that. Yes, there were lots of personal issues between Tip and Phife Dawg.  Lots.  But to take a group like Tribe - visionaries who never sold out, never dumbed down, sold lots of records and made a big impact on music - and reduce them to interpersonal issues does a bit of a disservice.  To his credit, Rapaport got lots of testimonials from other artists like Questlove, Common, The Beastie Boys and Pharrell Williams, as well as other members of the Native Tongues, including De La Soul and The  Jungle Brothers (but no Queen Latifah!). Personally, I would have liked to hear more details about how Tribe influenced all of these groups, and maybe hear from more of the band's peers who weren't part of the Native Tongues (for instance, I would have been interested to hear Ice Cube's take on them).

I also would have loved to hear more about the making of the early albums.  They were so different, it's hard to explain how weird and interesting they sounded in the context of the late '80s or early '90s.  Call me old, but that was a great era of hip-hop which I definitely miss.

As you can see in the film, Q-Tip is definitely and absolutely the group's leader.  Is he a control freak?  Maybe. But he is also super concerned with quality control, and if he doesn't take responsibility for that, who would? Also, no one else in the band really steps up the way he does.

I was curious about religion, which is hinted at in the film.  Phife refers to growing up as a Seventh Day Adventist, while Ali Shaheed Muhammed is Muslim.  I know that at some point during Tribe's existence, Q-Tip converted to Islam. I would have to think that that changed things also.  But maybe the group didn't want to discuss that. I can respect that, I guess.

As a group, I give A Tribe Called Quest an A. They are one of the greatest, and deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame one day.  But I give this doc a B-.  I think in some ways, Rapaport was too close to the subject matter, and also isn't an experienced documentarian.  Still, I enjoyed it, and will definitely get the DVD.  If I were Sony Classics (the distributor), I'd hire a new director for the outtakes -  to get the real story behind the drama behind the film.  But I'd also get someone to go through the footage and come up with bonus features that focus on the making of the early albums, a la the very cool Classic Albums DVD series.

ROCK THE BELLS: LAURYN'S COMEBACK, TRIBE'S TRIUMPH

This weekend, the Rock The Bells festival hit NYC, and it was a great time.  The story of the day was the comeback of "Ms." Lauryn Hill. I'm a huge fan of her classic album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and I was hoping for a great performance. But, like a lot of other people, I didn't know what to expect.  Would she show up?  Would there be a meltdown?  Was it going to be like her MTV Unplugged? The answer was a bit more complex.  She showed up with a very large band (most of the main stage acts were MCs and DJs, Lauryn had two drummers, guitar, keyboards, backing singers, etc.).  All the mics caused feedback and sound problems, but Lauryn powered through her set, victoriously.

She kicked off with a fast version of "Lost Ones" followed by a few more songs from Miseducation (but not "Doo-Wop" or "Everything Is Everything").  She also did her classic but not-super-well-known cover of Bob Marley's "Turn Your Lights Down Low." She also did three Fugees songs: "How Many Mics," "Fu-Gee-La" and "Ready Or Not." I was kind of surprised by that - but she did incredible versions, and I guess the point was that she doesn't need Wyclef to perform those songs.  Her band was super-tight and obviously well-rehearsed and Lauryn was in top form: her singing sounded great, but she was spitting rhymes with fire. She was also inspired by the crowd on the side of her stage, including her children (five or six of them!), plus celebs like Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, John Legend and Chris Rock. I don't know what her next move will be, but it should be interesting!

The other huge highlight of the day (for me) was A Tribe Called Quest's performance of Midnight Marauders. Last time I saw Tribe it was at Rock The Bells two years ago, and that night Q-Tip performed one solo set and then one with Tribe. This time it was all about the Tribe, and they were amazing.   They are so tight and well-rehearsed, they don't rap over their record, they rap over the beats that were used on the record. Ali Shaheed Muhammed is a great DJ, and Tip and Phife Dawg have a great bond and vibe going. Later on in the set, founding member of the group Jarobi joined them.  Also joining them for a few songs: Large Professor and Main Source for "Fakin' The Funk." Then of course towards the end of their set, Busta Rhymes for "Scenario." Incredible show and the highlight of my day.

Wu-Tang Clan: nothing to fuck wit', apparently!  Last time I saw them was at Rock The Bells a few years back, in my pre-blogging days.  They were great, it amazes me that a group with so many MCs keep it together for a tight set.  I've seen some messy Wu-Tang shows over the years, but they were great this year, sticking with material from their debut album, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Ol' Dirty Bastard was represented by his son, Boy Jones, who sounded just like his dad.

It was great to see KRS-One and Rakim at the same show. I'd never seen Rakim before, and I heard he was boring live.  Not true.  He was supposed to be performing the Eric B. & Rakim album Paid In Full, and he played most of it, throwing in just a purfunctory 5 seconds of the instrumental "Chinese Arithmatic." It's a bummer that he and Eric B. can't get it together to reunite.  KRS-One did a cool set, but talked a bit too much.  Unfortunately, I got there too late to see Slick Rick, and I left before Snoop Dogg (there were only two ferries to take everyone to and from the island, and I didn't want to wait on an hours-long line). But it was a great show, and I have to give props to the Rock The Bells people for always putting on a great show.

AWARD TOUR

When I first heard about this year's VH1 Hip-Hop Honors, I wasn't impressed. I heard they were honoring Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliot and Whodini. Not to be a "hater," in the parlance of the times, but Snoop always seems more like a great character (or guest MC) than a guy who makes classic records. Missy seems to to be a bit too young for this honor (I felt the same way about The Wu-Tang Clan, there's still lots of acts from the '80s who deserve recognition first) and I was never into Whodini.

Then I found out A Tribe Called Quest were also being honored. They're not just one of my favorite hip-hop groups, they're one of my favorite groups, period. I would probably put the MC team of Q-Tip and Phife Dawg against that of any other group. And Ali Shaheed is a great DJ/producer, and a very underrated one. Anyway, the tribute was cool: Common, Lupe Fiasco, Pharell Williams of The Neptunes and Busta Rhymes did a pretty cool performance (Mr. Fiasco messed up the lyrics which led to a, well, fiasco, which you can read about on... well, every hip-hop blog), and Tribe themselves was great.

The honor came at an interesting time: Q-Tip has been on tour, trying to re-ignite his solo career. His solo debut, 1999's Amplified, had a huge hit with "Vivrant Thing," but didn't do that well (maybe because the single came out on a Tribe best of and a Violator management compilation before Amplified was released), and because he seemed a bit, uh, Puffy, which many fans took offense to. The follow-up, the mainly instrumental Kamaal The Abstract (with Tip on keyboards) was shelved by the record label, and so was the next one, Open (although he did release the single, "For The Nasty," with Busta). How many artists do two unreleased albums in a row? Tribe has done some reunion shows in the past few years, and I hope they continue to do them. I was sorry to hear about Phife's problems with diabetes, and I'm glad he seems to be doing well.

I'm looking forward to see what Q-Tip does in the future. He's one of the few guys in hip-hop who I can see really making great albums in his 40s and beyond.