S. Samuel
Former G.O.O.D. Music affiliate Consequence recently shared his reaction to Q-Tip publicly airing out his frustrations over a forthcoming A Tribe Called Quest documentary set to hit the big screen this summer.
The Cons believes Tip went about unleashing his anger in an unprofessional manner.
“I was really disappointed in my cousin when he came up here and he had the email,” Cons said of the email Q-Tip printed out and brought up to “RapFix Live” in March. The email, which was accidentally sent to Tip by one of the documentary’s producers, indicated that there was a plan to cheat ATCQ out of getting producer credits on the film. “Man, you’re a superstar. What are you doing with a printout?” Consequence questioned. “That’s what your lawyer is for. You gave us ‘industry rule #4080.’ We’re still holding on to 4080,” he said in reference to Q-Tip’s 1991 “Check the Rhime” lyric “Industry rule #4080: Record-company people are shady.” (MTV)
A few weeks ago, Tip detailed his internal issues with Beats, Rhymes & Life.
According to Q-Tip, on December 17, 2010, a couple of weeks after he initially expressed concern about the film, an e-mail was accidently sent to him by one of the producers that read as follows: “First off let’s close the Billing Block and put it on the poster so they can’t get on that. Then we’ll f— them on everything else.” Seated next to Ali in our newsroom, Q-Tip contended that the e-mail conversation clearly stemmed from the group’s early concern about not being credited as producers on the film. (MTV)
In January, film director Michael Rapaport revealed initially having Q-Tip’s support for the film.
As Rapaport explained to us the next day while watching the Packers game with Phife, he’d shown the movie to Q-Tip multiple times. “From what he told me, he loves the movie. He thinks it’s going to be hugely successful, critically acclaimed. You can quote that … And one day he just decided he didn’t like it. I don’t know. I’m not sure what happened.” And since then, the two of them have only communicated through the media and Twitter. Even so, Rapaport bought Q-Tip and Jarobi White, who also didn’t show, two first-class tickets each to come to Park City and booked them hotel rooms. (The fourth member, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, had a prior engagement in Europe, but both Rapaport and Phife think he would have come.) And he was still hopeful they might come, until they didn’t. As Rapaport explained, “A Tribe Called Quest has been broken up. I deal with them individually. I’ve never been in a room with all four of them. I think they’re all grown men They’re all adults. They all make decisions on their own. So why Phife came here, he wanted to be here. And why the other guys didn’t come here, they didn’t want to be here.” (New York Mag)
As of now, Beats, Rhymes & Life is set to premiere on July 8th in New York City.
“I’ll be all over the place wherever they want to send me,” says Rapaport, a first-time director with more than 20 years of acting credits, among them True Romance, Mighty Aphrodite, and the TV series “Prison Break”. The film, a Sony Pictures Classics release, will play another 32 cities as it is released to a handful of theatersat a time. “Beats, Rhymes & Life” will play San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C., on its second week, San Diego, Boston, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Atlanta beginning July 22. The current run ends Aug. 12 when it premieres in 10 cities, among them New Orleans, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh. The film will be screened Wednesday (Apr. 27) at the Tribeca Film Festival. (Billboard)
Check out a review of the film below:
