As the hype builds in advance of the July 8th release of Michael Rapaport‘s “Beats, Rhymes and Life: the Travels of A Tribe Called Quest“, the tension between Q-Tip and the director’s creation has come to a head. In an interview with MTV’s RapFix Live, the Abstract urged fellow hip-hop artists to “be in charge of your own stories”, arguing that something was lost in translation in the film by having Rapaport try to chronicle the legacy of a group operating in a “predominately African-American” tradition.

In the same program, Rapaport expressed confusion as to Q-Tip’s complaint. It’s a valid question: “Beats, Rhymes and Life”, by all indications, is very much one fan’s love letter to the group, and Rapaport seems perfectly qualified to try and tell that story. The racial implication in Tip’s words seems particularly closed-minded for such a gifted artist, but until the movie sees a full release, we won’t really be able to say for sure what he means. Get your popcorn ready.

Via MTV (Q-Tip interview comes in at around 1:00 in)

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