Saw Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, a recent documentary about the early hiphop group A Tribe Called Quest. I know extremely little about A Tribe Called Quest (or indeed about hiphop in general) so it was a perfect little sample-pack of all the important titles and moments for the band. I suspect an actual fan would know all of this stuff forward and backward and perhaps to the documentary's credit, it does little hand-holding for newbs. They don't explain, for example, how exactly the group affected the hiphop scene or how big they got. This is assumed prior knowledge. Rather, most of the time is spent moving from album to album, exploring influences and group dynamics.
The documentary is interesting and full of great glimpses into the lives of talented musicians with earned but huge egos. There's a completely out-of-left-field sequence near the end which deals with one member's kidney transplant in excruciating detail. I wonder if the filmmaker had put undue importance on this footage suspecting perhaps that he would catch the artist's final moments? I imagine the film may be slightly frustrating to the band-members as well because, with the exception of one of the lead singers, the documentary all but ends with a "The End", putting a final period on the careers of like ten dudes.
Anyway, an interesting film about an interesting topic I know nothing about. There wasn't a lot of action or drama, but funky visuals kept it from getting stale and anyway it's a documentary. I'm deeply suspicious of any film that draws morals from real life.
No comments:
Post a Comment