‘I’m excited to solidify my working relationship with Kanye,’ veteran rapper says of new deal. By Nadeska Alexis Q-Tip Photo: Getty Images Kanye West and his G.O.O.D. Music team are steadily building anticipation for their upcoming group album , but the latest news from Kanye’s all-star camp is that has joined their ranks. On Wednesday (April 11), Universal Republic chairman and CEO Barry Weiss announced that the veteran rapper and producer is the latest addition to the G.O.O.D Music family, which operates under Def Jam Recordings. Q-Tip, who built his legacy as a member of the iconic group A Tribe Called Quest, released his last solo album, the previously shelved Kamaal/ The Abstract, in 2009. The Renaissance came out in 2008. They were released via Motown and Battery Records. Now he’s set to drop his fourth solo LP, tentatively titled The Last Zulu, under the G.O.O.D. Music/ Def Jam umbrella. “I’m excited to be a part of the great iconic Def Jam label,” Q-Tip said in a statement. “I’m humbled to be a part of such a storied history. To reconnect with Barry Weiss is a great thing. As far as G.O.O.D. Music, I’m excited to solidify my working relationship with Kanye, and I look forward to all the opportunities that lie ahead in our partnership. I will do my best to present the most cutting-edge music I can.” Q-Tip and Kanye have worked closely together in the past, most recently teaming up for production on West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Watch the Throne, his joint album with Jay-Z. Weiss, who worked with Q-Tip during his tenure with A Tribe Called Quest on Jive Records in the 1990s, says that he’s “thrilled to be working with Q-Tip once again.” With Q-Tip now on board, it’s likely that the Queens native will leave his mark on the upcoming G.O.O.D. Music album, which is set to the debut this spring. The album’s first single, Mercy dropped last week with features from Big Sean, Pusha T and fellow Def Jam signee 2 Chainz. Q-Tip will join a label whose roster includes John Legend, Kid Cudi, Big Sean, Pusha T, Cyhi Da Prynce, Mr. Hudson and Mos Def. Related Artists Q-Tip Kanye West
Let’s not belabor this: The Artist claimed Best Picture at Saturday’s Producers Guild Awards, all but affirming its eventual Best Picture win at the Academy Awards. Other winners included The Adventures of Tintin in the animated category and Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest in docs. Congrats to all! Is it March yet? The winner of the PGA’s top award has gone on to repeat at the Oscars nearly 75 percent of the time over the last two decades, most recently doing so last year following The King’s Speech’s surprising victory over The Social Network . The Weinstein Company never looked back in 2011, and it won’t look back now. Next stop: Tuesday’s Oscar nominations, and at this point for Michel Hazanavicius’s silent film, it’s not a matter of “if” it will earn recognition, but “how much?” Check back tomorrow for my predictions — or just move on to fantasy baseball or something. It’s going to be a long month ahead. [ PGA ]
When Michael Rapaport ‘s documentary lens captured the behind-the-scenes drama between members of iconic rap group A Tribe Called Quest , his subjects took to the media to voice their discontent. But by the time Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, and won the Audience Award at the L.A. Film Fest , Rapaport had earned all but one Tribe member’s public support.
In the next installment of Vibe’s “Full Clip” series MC/producer Q-tip discusses his entire catalog of hip-hop hits for A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, Nas , Biggie and more. The Queens, NY native has been making headlines for his dispute with actor/director Michael Rappaport over his group’s documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life . With a focus on the group’s internal strife Tip told the mag that he hopes the next hip-hop documentary “focuses on the culture.” Nevertheless, Tip seemed to have genuine fun reminiscing about the methods and occasional madness behind his music. In one portion he describes making “One Love” for a teenaged Nasir Jones: “I specifically produced ‘One Love’ for Nas . I knew he was special even before Illmatic. He was the MC who could capture the picture of everything he was rhyming about. His approach was incredible…he had the perfect cadence. You related to Nas because you felt he was from around the way. And people forget that Nas was a prodigy…he was younger than all of us at that time. So I told him, ‘Yo, I’m going to give you some spooky sounding shit for your album.’ And Nas was like, ‘Yeah, I need that to capture the feel of what I’m saying. I need that crazy, mysterious shit.’ So that was the vibe of ‘One Love.’ I knew that it was going to be a classic track. I just knew it. It’s one of those special songs that when you work on it you know what it’s going to be.” READ THE FULL CLIP AT VIBE MAGAZINE RELATED POSTS: FACT OF THE DAY: Rah Digga Was Originally Q-Tip’s Artist Consequence On Kanye West Beef: “I Wasn’t Trying To Air Anybody Out” [EXLCUSIVE VIDEO] Q-Tip & Phife Talk Sophomore Jinx In Clip From New Documentary [VIDEO]
I recently had the chance to interview Phife Dawg from a Tribe Called Quest at the Los Angeles Premiere of “Beats Rhymes And Life” in Los Angeles and talked to him about his relationship with Q-Tip, the legacy of a A Tribe Called Quest and his struggles with diabetes. Check Out These Joints Too “Beats Rhymes And Life” Just Scratches The Surface Of A Tribe Called Quest “Viva Riva!”, “Beats, Rhymes And Life” Lead Pack Of Black Indie Summer Films
A Tribe Called Quest doc director says he’d do another hip-hop film ‘if things lined up.’ By Rob Markman, with reporting by Kara Warner Michael Rapaport Photo: MTV News The controversy surrounding the documentary “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest” has not killed director Michael Rapaport’s hip-hop jones. The film has received rave reviews, and if given the chance, Rapaport told MTV News that he has his eye on a few other rap acts that he’d like to turn his lens on. “I would love to document De La Soul,” he said looking directly in the camera making his best pitch. Another group which Rapaport has interest in is Philadelphia hip-hop band the Roots. While the group has had a rotating cast since their 1993 debut, Organix, band leader and drummer ?uestlove, along with MC Black Thought and keyboardist Kamal have been mainstays. Multi-platinum producer Scott Storch was a one-time member, as was rapper Malik B. The Roots have released 10 studio LPs since the early 1990s, and of course, the Grammy-winning group are enjoying success as the in-house band for “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.” “I would love to document the Roots; I think they have an interesting story,” Rapaport said. “I have a curiosity about them. Their musicality and their live performances I think would be great, and I have a feeling that there are stories behind each one of them.” After filming A Tribe Called Quest for his current work, Rapaport has went back and forth with group member Q-Tip. In light of the experience, when he visited “RapFix Live” in March, Q-Tip urged other rappers to tell their “own stories,” a concept that confused Rapaport . “I don’t know if he meant, ‘We’re from hip-hop, it should be a hip-hop director,’ ” the actor-director admitted to MTV News. “I don’t know who would go under the auspices of being a hip-hop director. Or if it was a racial thing like, ‘We’re black and shouldn’t have a white director.’ It was confusing to me.” As of now, Rapaport isn’t looking to do another rap film in the near future, but he wouldn’t turn it down if the opportunity presented itself. “Right now I’m taking a break from hip-hop documentaries,” he said. “But I would do it if things lined up.” Would you support a Michael Rapaport-directed Roots documentary? Tell us in the comments! Related Artists The Roots De La Soul
‘It was confusing to me,’ director tells ‘RapFix Live’ in response to the MC encouraging rappers to tell their own stories. By Rob Markman, with reporting by Kara Warner Michael Rappaport Photo: MTV News Despite all of the controversy surrounding “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest,” ATCQ’s Q-Tip has encouraged fans to see the documentary, which is now playing in select cities. The Queens MC has bucked at how the group was portrayed in the film, and during a visit to “RapFix Live” this past March, Tip encouraged other rap artists to tell their own stories. The doc’s director, Michael Rapaport, who has weathered criticism from Tip in the past, appeared on “RapFix Live” Wednesday (June 29) and admitted that he was confused by the rapper’s comments on the live stream. “We crack the mold, we break the rules. We define this culture that we in right now, this Western culture, the sh– that’s moving around the world, whether it be Tribe to Lil Wayne, Drake to Kanye, I don’t care,” Q-Tip said to Sway back in March. “This hip-hop sh– is our sh–, and when we start moving in, control your stories, man. Tell your stories — that’s what I learned from this.” “I don’t understand what [Q-Tip] was talkin’ about with ‘telling their own stories,’ ” Rapaport told MTV News. “I don’t know if it was like, ‘Hip-hop artists should direct movies about hip-hop artists,’ or maybe he was saying, ‘I should direct a documentary about myself,’ which has never been done before.” Rapaport argued that a filmmaker doesn’t need to be a hip-hop artist to effectively document the culture on film and used “Goodfellas” and “Casino” director Martin Scorsese to illustrate his point. “Martin Scorsese does movies about gangsters, and if you’ve ever been around Martin Scorsese, he’s the furthest thing from a gangster, so I don’t understand the thing about ‘tell the stories yourself,’ ” Rapaport said, sounding perplexed. “I don’t know if he meant, ‘We’re from hip-hop, it should be a hip-hop director’ or — I don’t know who would go under the auspices of being a hip-hop director. Or if it was a racial thing like, ‘We’re black and shouldn’t have a white director.’ It was confusing to me.” The filmmaker did acknowledge that despite the back and forth between him and the rapper, he did appreciate Q-Tip asking fans to support the movie. Whether the two can reconcile is up in the air. According to Rapaport, the last time he heard from Tip was through email and it seems that the message was less than encouraging. “I haven’t talked to Q-Tip,” he said. “Last time I heard from Q-Tip he sent me an email and he said, ‘All you gotta do is stay white and be privileged.’ ” What do you think of Michael Rapaport’s response to Q-Tip on “RapFix Live”? Sound off in the comments. Related Videos ‘RapFix Live’ With CyHi The Prynce Related Artists A Tribe Called Quest Q-Tip
‘I was really disappointed in my cousin when he came up here and he had the email,’ Cons tells MTV News of Tip’s ‘RapFix Live’ appearance. By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway Consequence on “RapFix Live” Photo: MTV News They say blood is thicker than water, but not even the blood bond Consequence shares with cousin Q-Tip would stop the Queens MC from expressing his displeasure to Sway on MTV News’ “RapFix Live.” Before Consequence got down with Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music , he got his start as an affiliate of iconic hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, appearing on four of the 15 tracks on the group’s 1996 album Beats, Rhymes and Life. These days, Cons is on the outs with Q-Tip. He was critical of the way the ATCQ frontman aired out his grievances with Michael Rapaport’s Tribe documentary “Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest.” “I was really disappointed in my cousin when he came up here and he had the email,” Cons said of the email Q-Tip printed out and brought up to “RapFix Live” in March. The email, which was accidentally sent to Tip by one of the documentary’s producers, indicated that there was a plan to cheat ATCQ out of getting producer credits on the film. “Man, you’re a superstar. What are you doing with a printout?” Consequence questioned. “That’s what your lawyer is for. You gave us ‘industry rule #4080.’ We’re still holding on to 4080,” he said in reference to Q-Tip’s 1991 “Check the Rhime” lyric “Industry rule #4080: Record-company people are shady.” “I don’t want to see no scrolls. You Q-Tip. It’s a vivrant thing, and if it’s like that with Michael Rapaport, make it a violent thing,” he continued to rant. Ultimately, ‘Quence seemed to be most critical of the way Q-Tip and the dissenting members of Tribe publicly handled their beef with Rapaport and the filmmakers. Consequence also questioned what all the dissention would ultimately do to A Tribe Called Quest’s legacy. He pointed to the fact that the rap group was not on a unified front. On April 29, Phife Dawg appeared on “RapFix Live” and was in support of the film. “That’s his legacy too,” Cons said, referring to Phife. “And before y’all make a move, y’all gotta iron that out.” Do you agree with Consequence? Should Q-Tip have handled his grievances differently? Let us know win the comments. Related Videos ‘RapFix Live’ With Lil B, Consequence And Pharoahe Monch
It’s been 20 years since Naughty By Nature released its self-titled debut album, and to commemorate, Treach , Vin Rock , and DJ Kay Gee are getting ready to drop a new full-length, ‘Anthem Inc.,’ on May 17. The album will include re-works of hits such as ‘O.P.P.’ and ‘Hip-Hop Hooray’ alongside new material, including ‘Flags,’ the single with a anti-gun violence message that warrants two separate video treatments. “It really seems like two years, it doesn’t seem like 20 years,” Treach told TheBVX.com. “Hip-hop is the fountain of youth, definitely. It feels good, that time really flew and I have the hunger like we just came out.” The group met up at Yoshi’s in San Francisco to celebrate two decades of sound and to unearth some tidbits you probably didn’t know (or may have forgotten) about Naughty By Nature . 20. Though Naughty By Nature is 20-years-old this year, these three guys have been together for even longer, and got their start together performing at high school talent shows. 19. Their original group name was The New Style , and they self-released an album called ‘Independent Leaders ‘ in 1989. On the cover, Vin Rock and Treach are rocking some clean sweaters (argyle and cable-knit, respectively), and Kay Gee a Kid ‘n Play high top fade. 18. “Europe is a huge market for us, and most recently, Eastern Europe: Croatia, the Czech Republic, and spots like that,” says Vin Rock. The group played the first-ever hip-hop show in Poland in 2007. “We were there outside in the middle of the Polish projects and [it was] predominantly all males out there and it was crazy,” he remembers. “A lot of Eastern Europe, they’re just breaking down walls and coming out of a lot of hard times so those kids are real gutter and gully out there. It’s definitely good to keep going and opening up these different markets.” READ MORE AT THEBVX.VOM RELATED POSTS: Naughty By Nature “Flags” (feat. Bilal, Jaheim & Ice-T) [VIDEO] The Grammy’s Celebrate Hip-Hop With A Tribe Called Quest & Naughty By Nature SUNDAY SOUL SAMPLE: Naughty By Nature,”I Gotta Lotta”
Q-Tip tells MTV News documentary director Michael Rapaport mismanaged group’s travel plans. By Alvin Blanco, with reporting by Sway Calloway A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip Photo: MTV News A Tribe Called Quest say they’re not the bad guys. Two of the four members of the esteemed rap group, Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, recently sat down with MTV News — a third, Jarobi, spoke with us during the sit-down by phone — to elaborate on their issues with the Michael Rapaport-directed documentary , “Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest.” Although the film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Phife Dawg was the only ATCQ member to attend. The group did, however, issue a press release at the time expressing their support of the film . According to ATCA, the statement was to help counter any impressions that the group was not involved with the documentary. “We were being made to look like we weren’t a part of the process,” Ali told MTV News. “And we’ve been a part of the process from day one, when we were like, ‘OK, Mike, we cool with you being a director and telling the story of A Tribe Called Quest.’ We’ve always wanted everything to flow from beginning to end in a successful manner. Unfortunately, he was not playing along. There was no script; he had a ‘purpose.’ But it seems like the purpose he delivered to us verbally wasn’t what was being displayed.” Q-Tip then chimed in, citing an MTV News story in which Rapaport expressed disappointment about the full group not being at Sundance, even after the director said he’d allocated money to pay for their travel and lodging. Q-Tip insisted Rapaport “came out of his pocket for $5,000” in order to cover travel expenses for ATCQ and their managers, a figure he implied was particularly low for a week-long stay in Park City, Utah. Moreover, according to Ali, Rapaport misconstrued the situation by failing to reveal certain details. “It’s a deceptive way to tell what really happened,” Muhammad said. “Our management, they’re thorough and they capture things right away. They didn’t need five days to book a ticket; they were on top of it for months to get it covered. Why if he’s being asked the question to take care of the travel of the group that you need their support [for], why wait till the last minute to take care of it?” Ali was not at Sundance because he was on a tour that he told MTV News had been booked three months earlier, a fact that the documentary’s producers were aware of, he said. The ATCQ DJ expressed further dismay about all the promotion being done for a film the group had not properly vetted. “Before we go and do all of that rah-rah, can we even get the film correct?” Muhammad said. “We can’t even have conversations with you and your legal department to take care of other business. Not only can we not do that, we can’t even simplify a travel answer in a reasonable amount of time. It was so disheveled. How could we not be frustrated? But here we are moving forward, trying to be positive about the thing and he’s playing his PR game. At this point, here we are.” Q-Tip also dismissed any notion that he was apprehensive about the film’s content. “He’s out there saying quotes like, ‘I think they’re scared,’ ” Q-Tip said. “He singled me out saying that I was scared because the film was this open thing. I lived it, what am I going to be scared about? There’s not a big reveal in it that I didn’t know. I’m a human being, these are my brothers. What am I fearful about?” However, Q-Tip did express concern that the film might be imbalanced due to lack of context. After viewing a first edit of the film, Q-Tip, Ali, Rapaport and others went over the material to make suggestions. “After we worked on the edit I was like, ‘Yo, Mike, see? This is good. That’s how we supposed to do,’ ” Q-Tip recalled. ” ‘You still got your stuff, we got our stuff.’ We went over it, it’s great.” According to Q-Tip, Rapaport flew back to Los Angeles to implement the changes and piece the documentary together. But when the group received a second edit, they noticed they weren’t listed as producers on the film. After the group’s management asked that this be corrected, Rapaport admitted that their lack of a “producer” credit was no oversight. “Mike sends an e-mail saying why we shouldn’t be producers,” Q-Tip said. “Because it’s viewed as propaganda [if the featured artists are also producers], it would be biased and the public wouldn’t go for it. That’s what he said.” When MTV News’ Sway asked if they agreed with Rapaport’s reasoning, Jarobi responded, “I don’t buy it because I just watched that ‘Fab Five’ [documentary on ESPN] and Jalen Rose is an executive producer, so it doesn’t make sense to me.” Q-Tip added, “This is hip-hop, this is music, nobody writes the ironclad rules. This is what it is.” Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: A Tribe Called Quest
