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

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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