Tribal Sentimentality

The music of A Tribe Called Quest provided the soundtrack of my high-school years. The group’s seminal album, The Low End Theory, was the first CD I ever owned; their songs dominated the mix tapes I made for my then-girlfriend-now-wife; and I watched their videos that I’d taped from Yo! MTV Raps so often that I wore out our family VCR. (Side note: I realize that Reed—and even Olivia—probably doesn’t know what a VCR is.) And so I was geeked to learn that a documentary on ATCQ had recently been released, and I have to say that it didn’t disappoint this lifelong fan.

I think a measure of a good movie is how much you’re thinking about it the next day. Well, this movie had me thinking about it a bunch three days after Beni and I watched it. In the spirit of The Source magazine, I give Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest the coveted five mics rating.