I tweeted about this last night but I have to give a proper plug to the documentary Beat, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest. I caught the most recent screening of the film last night at the AFI SilverDocs film festival in Silver Spring, just a 15 minute drive from where I grew up.
The film brought me back in time to some very formative years in my childhood (11-18 years old) just in time for my 31st birthday. I vividly remember listening to The Low End Theory on tape on my family’s GPX dual cassette deck stereo. That radio was a huge deal in our family at the time. While everyone else had those big entertainment systems, we were happy to get a radio that could play two tapes! I think it was my cousin Alex from Chicago who introduced me to A Tribe Called Quest. But it was Tribe who introduced me to rap.
Maybe it’s the fact that I’m Latino but I felt the music instantly. People always ask me why I like rap so much and why I like dancing to hip-hop. D.C. transplants will tell you that Silver Spring is the ‘burbs, but it is one of the most diverse places in the U.S. It took me years to appreciate it but I went to public schools in Montgomery County with an incredibly dynamic student body. This environment allowed me to dive right into the music much to the dismay of my parents. I remember my mom once yelling, “you can memorize rap lyrics but you can’t memorize bible verses?”
Beats, Rhymes & Life is about a lot of things, not the least of which is the birth and growth of rap. It’s also about life, death, love, friendship and one group member’s battle with diabetes. As I reflect on another year of life the movie has given me a lot of food for thought. Ironically, I now do some work on diabetes education and I have a family history of diabetes. I’ve recently cut back on my added sugar intake and it has made a huge difference in my health. Thanks to someone special that was in my life this last year I’ve rediscovered my love for music and hope to pick up an instrument again.
The film is both moving and inspring but don’t take my word for it, make sure to check it out when it’s widely released next month.
Beats, Rhymes & Life: A Tribe Called Quest Documentary (Unreleased Trailer) from Matthew Beck on Vimeo.