Watch: A Tribe Called Quest Documentary Trailer

Actor Michael Rapaport has been working on a documentary about legendary hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest for years — and now a new trailer offers a tantalizing look at what's in store. The film, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest , features extensive interviews with members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi, and details the quartet's pioneering career during the 1990s, the issues that initially split them up (and flared up again during a recent reunion tour) and Phife's ongoing diabetes-related health problems.

(The group's fractious relations are referenced in an apparently joking title shown at the end of the trailer: Beats, Rhymes & Fights.)

Photos: Random Notes

The doc features appearances from Kanye West, Nas, Mos Def, the Roots and many others who testify to the group's resounding influence, which includes humorous lyrics, previously unplumbed jazz samples, a mellow swagger and, as the Roots' ?uestlove puts it, the fact that the group "managed to rewrite the song structure for hip-hop."

The film is scheduled for release next year.

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Song Stories

“I Can See for Miles”

The Who | 1967

A foreboding accusation of lies and deception, "I Can See for Miles" was given a psychedelic hard-rock veneer by Pete Townshend's whiplash guitar riffs and Keith Moon's thundering drums. The song helped break the Who as stars in the United States, giving them a Top Ten hit in late 1967. "I swoon when I hear the sound," boasted Townshend in Rolling Stone. "The words, which aging senators have called 'drug oriented,' are about a jealous man with exceptionally good eyesight. Honest."

More Song Stories entries »

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