Blog: Beats Per Minute

The most telling moment of Beats, Rhymes & Life , director Michael Rapaport’s terrific new documentary on alternative-rap pioneers A Tribe Called Quest, was this from Phife Dawg: “I love hip-hop, but at the rate it’s going, I could do with or without it.” It’s not uncommon in 2011 to hear rap's elder statesmen bemoan the commercial direction the genre has taken in recent years, but it’s particularly fascinating in the case of this group, which hasn’t put out any new music since 1998, but can be counted on most years as a fixture on the summer festival circuit. [...]