Monday, September 26, 2011

Tribe Called Quest doc gets one night at RFC, Tuesday, 7:45 p.m.

(L to R) Q-Tip, Phife Dawg,  and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest.
The new documentary Beats Rhymes & Life chronicles the rise to stardom and (years later) the storied implosion of legendary hip-hop outfit A Tribe Called Quest. It plays one screening only Tuesday, Sep. 27 at 7:45 p.m. at The Robinson Film Center in downtown Shreveport.

Among true hip-hop fans, Tribe are recognized as perhaps the most innovative and beloved hip-hop act of all time. Personally, I am obsessed with two seminal albums that they released back-to-back: 1991's The Low End Theory and 1993's Midnight Marauders. I still find it impossible to conceive that one group - essentially a duo (what did Ali Shaheed Muhammad do?) - created these two albums in the course of less than two years.

My two desert island Tribe songs would be "Buggin' Out" (listen via Youtube) and "Electric Relaxation" (listen via Youtube). To me, their music represents an era of hip-hop during which record labels were still willing to license samples, allowing hip-hop to exist, for a while, as a truly postmodern art form (original music constructed from samples).

Watch the trailer.
Buy tickets.

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