With all the drama fit for a court-room that surrounds the release of the Michael Rappaport directed documentary about a tribe called quest aptly named Beats, Rhymes and Life after their 4th studio album, the mere iconic status of both the subjects involved suggests that any verdict will have far reaching implications. Rappaport a Jewish Hollywood A-list actor is known for his love for Hip Hop. Whether it’s from his comedic antics as a an A&R agent on the skits off Talib Kweli’s Quality album or as the ‘blacksploitation’ endorsing film executive on Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled”. He has created a public persona of himself as someone who understands the challenges that black art and entertainment faces in the hands of corporate America. The co signs from Kweli and Spike Lee didn’t hurt either. Even though we might have liked The War @ Home, when we heard that the main guy behind the sitcom would be directing the 1st hip hop documentary about the life and times of one of the most influential and ground breaking groups in Hip Hop history, we raised an eyebrow but, our suspicions never grew to full concern. Besides, Tribe okayed it so, Tribe had to be cool with it.
When the stories broke, about Q-tip’s tweet where he declared “ I don’t support this film” you could almost hear the deafening sighs across the world going “oh...here we go”. So what in the hell did dude go and do now. From a tribe perspective the problems were multifaceted. On a creative front according to Q-tip in an interview with Slay on MTV, when they signed onto the project they signed on as producers and this meant that they would have a say in the content of the film. When they saw the 1st couple of edits however, Rappaport was not welcoming and argumentative when it came to their input. In his defense Rappaport claims that when Tribe saw how revealing the film was they tried to edit it because they feared it would tarnish their image. A reference, amongst others to the Q-tip and Phife fight before a show that Rappaport managed to catch on tape. You can argue that Q tip and Phife’s fights are well documented in as far as how they’ve both been expressive on the subject over the years. An argument that’s supported by Tip’s statement “ when you’re dealing with a group in the pantheon of 20 years there’s so many stories you can tell, fortunately or unfortunately the story that sprung up (in the documentary) was the dissention between me and Phife … but if you’re gonna do that, then you gotta balance that out as well “ It’s almost like ATCQ were calling for all aspects of the group to be shown and not just the negative. The documentary’s Beats, Rhymes and Fights trailer that tribe never okayed is testament to this as it represents exactly what the title suggests.
Tribe feels the music wasn’t represented in the 1st edit, and that being the most integral part of their legacy… had to be on there. On a business level Tip was sent an email by mistake written by Rappaport to one of the projects managers which read ” first off lets close the billing block and put it on the poster so they cant get on that. Then we’ll f*&$ them on everything else.” Exposing a plot by Rappaport to intentionally prevent Tribe from being producers on the project. When Ali Shaheed says “ that’s the beginning of the deception and there was a lot of deception that Michael played with the media with regards to what was happening behind closed doors” you kinda get a sense of who was who and what was what. However, when all is said and done, all parties involved want YOU to go and see the film. I agree, Michael crafted a masterpiece in the end. His love and understanding of the culture, the group and storytelling shines through. After a lot of back and forths, editing and collaboration all parties were eventually happy with the final product.
So why all the politics?
Well, Rappaport was the “ bamboozled “ guy. The guy who asked Kweli to be T Kwiggidy on “quality”. A funny dude in both instances as he played the satire, but how funny is it in real life? Forget the irony in the Michael story and for a little, just a little consider that this piece is not in the least designed to discredit him. Why did a tribe called quest, one of the most revered and respected groups in music need the backing of a Hollywood A lister slash hip hop fan to make a documentary about themselves? Is there such a thing as being incorruptible when operating within a corrupt machine that seeks to exploit art for it’s own benefit? This whole saga played itself out in the public courtroom so it’s fitting to say, you be the judge. Before you make that judgement though take note of Tip’s closing statement in his interview with Slay “ tell your own stories, be in charge of your own stories. We griots we gotta pass our own stories on, this is part of our tradition as African Americans, lets tell our own stories… we can let everybody in and participate with us in this but, don’t fall for the Hollywood …. We are hip hop man we crack the mould we break the rules… this hip hop sh!t is our sh!t and when we start moving in let’s control your stories man. Tell your stories. “
