Shahid Mohammed, cut it with precision: this week Pop Screen is going back to the Daisy Age of hip-hop with Michael Rapaport’s documentary Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest. Somewhat incredibly the first ever documentary about a hip-hop band, this warts-and-all look at Tribe’s history annoyed Q-Tip by focusing on the tensions between him and the late Phife Dawg. But the film as a whole is fonder and more sensitive than Rapaport’s career as a social media nuisance would have you believe.
This week, My Favourite Film‘s Gav Smith joins us for the first time to discuss Tribe’s vast musical legacy, as well as the golden age of semi-legal sampling, the film’s evocative portrait of East Coast hip-hop back when it was an underground scene, and Graham’s slightly delusional belief that The Love Movement isn’t that bad. There’s also room for digressions on The Source magazine’s fall from grace, Manic Street Preachers song titles and Spike Jonze’s Beastie Boys documentary.
Podcasts to go: if you want more Pop Screen, our Patreon backers get a bonus episode every month. This month’s launches tomorrow, and it’s about Tom Hooper’s Cats, so, y’know. You also get our other movie podcast Director’s Lottery and Graham’s twice-weekly classic Doctor Who reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find out more.
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Beats Rhymes & Life: A Tribe Called Quest – Archive
Gav’s podcast is returning in 2022, you can check out the latest episode of – My Favourite Film – with guest co-host of Mick Muncer of Evolution of Horror
