Beats, Rhymes & Life Director Michael Rapaport Tells His Side of the Tribe Called Quest Story

Tracking the film's trajectory through Sundance to now, some fans of A Tribe Called Quest seemed unsure of what to think of the film due to the group's fluctuating public reactions. How have you felt you should respond to those fans based on what they've heard in the media?

You know, I'm a fan of the group. I'm such a fan of the group that I spent my own money to do a documentary about it. I'm a fan of the group, so I'm coming from the same place. This was made because I'm a fan, it wasn't made because I was paid, it wasn't made because I was hired, I wasn't sought after by the group to do this. You might say I'm the biggest fan, to do something like this, and the most fortunate fan.

But as far as that, the consequences of speaking out against a movie that's being made about you, or not liking it, or saying you don't like it on Twitter then telling me you like it, or saying that you don't like the way production has gone down but go see the movie -- you're confusing the fans. And when Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad went on MTV and said, "We love the movie, go see the movie, support the movie, but dealing with Michael Rapaport hasn't been all hunky-dory," who cares? The reality of it is, no one cares about Q-Tip and me getting along or not getting along, no one cares about what it took to make the movie, people care about Tribe Called Quest and people care about where they are, what they're doing, and what they're going to do. All this other shit, all it's done is make more curiosity about the film. And if in trying to slight me or trying to slight the film somehow, it's backfired because people just want to know, "Well, what don't you want us to see?"

When I spoke with Phife and Jarobi, they agreed that you made a great film, but said they would have just preferred it focus on the music instead of the personal drama. And as subjects, you can see why they'd want to protect the privacy of what goes on behind the scenes.

Yeah, but you know what? If I had focused just on the music, I wouldn't be speaking to you. The movie wouldn't have gotten bought. If this movie was just about how great the songs were, and how intricate the samples are -- the movie celebrates detailed things of a lot of songs, but without a story you're gonna press stop. That's not a movie, that's a Behind the Music. What I think they should do, because they missed the 20th anniversary of People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm -- while we were filming the movie that milestone came and went, and they missed the 20th anniversary of the classic album The Low End Theory, they should do a Behind the Music for the Midnight Marauders 20th anniversary and they can go over every song and every detail on that. But that's not what I pitched them, that's not what I told them I wanted to do, and that's not what I intended to do. They know that and I know that.

How are you getting along with the members of Tribe these days? Jarobi, Ali, and Phife all came to the premiere to lend their public show of support, but has Q-Tip reached out at all?

I have no idea, I don't know what he's doing. He's a producer on the movie; in my 20 years of being a part of films I've never seen a producer publicly not support their product, that he shares profit participation in. I've never seen a producer do that. So what's up with him? I have no idea. He wanted to be a producer, you're a producer. But then you don't want to support your film publicly... It's confusing to me. It's confusing because why did he want to become a producer in the first place? They weren't producers when I was making the movie; they were given a credit when the film got accepted to Sundance because they asked for it.

Do you think you could have said no?

You know what? Legally, to this day, we still didn't have to give them producer credit. There's nothing legally that's bound them to a credit. There's no paperwork signed that anyone could present that says A Tribe Called Quest are producers on this film. They asked to be producers, and we gave them producer credits.

It sounds like you're doing everything you possibly can to maintain goodwill.

I tell you one thing: There's no other filmmaker worth his spit that would have put up with the bullshit that I put up with, with them wanting to meddle around in the finished cut. If Spike Lee was directing this movie, he would've been like, "Get the fuck outta here." So as far as I'm concerned, I'm a pleasure to work with!

You've mentioned that you'd like to keep directing, but shift your focus to features. Why so?

I definitely want to direct a feature film, and I'm always going to act and always going to want to act, and I would love to do another documentary at some point. But the next thing I want to direct is a feature, and hopefully I get that going before the end of the year.

What would that be?

There've been some things I've read and am trying to get going, but nothing is set yet.

Acting-wise, has the way that you've chosen roles over the years evolved?

It has. It's evolved because I have kids, and where I take jobs, and if I'm leaving my kids what's the benefit of it? I'm not just going to up and go to Detroit in the middle of summer to work on something, unless it's something special. I think things through more creatively. As an actor, I feel like I haven't played a part as a man yet. I did a lot of things in my twenties and thirties, but as a man, which I consider myself now -- or at least age has made me look like a man -- I don't feel like I've played a full, well-rounded role as an adult yet. As a true man, in terms of maturity. So I'm looking forward to doing that.

Do you find that those roles are particularly hard for you to find?

I think it's hard for people to accept when you from doing a certain thing, because as a young man there's a boisterousness that I think I had, a certain quality of innocence. And when you get a little older, those things chip away at you and the way you look, who you are, your energy and your essence, you grow and you mature and you need to play different kinds of roles. So I wouldn't say it's hard, it's just people have a perception of what you do and it's like, "Yo, I'm not 26 anymore. I'm 40." So I'm not going to play the dumb 20-year-old. Maybe I'll play the dumb 40-year-old, which is cool. But it's just different. I have to kind of look at what I want to do as an actor.

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