Michael Rapaport: "Jay-Z’s Not Even The King, He’s Something Else."

Last night, hip-hop legends and multiplatinum selling artists A Tribe Called Quest were featured in the documentary "Beats Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest" at NYC's Tribeca Film Festival. The directorial debut of hilarious actor/comedian Michael Rapaport is the first ever hip-hop group documentary and has generated a buzz from the rave reviews it received at Sundance.

GlobalGrind had a chance to kick it at the Trump SoHo penthouse with Michael Rapaport and talk about the challenges of making the film, his relationship with ATCQ, fainting in the club and stalking Rihanna.

GG: "Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest" is your directorial debut. As a fan of ATCQ, was there pressure to do right by the group? How did you handle it?

Michael Rapaport: I felt a lot of pressure to do the film justice and to do it the right way. There hasn’t really been a proper documentary about a hip-hop group and I know how precious A Tribe Called Quest is to the fans. Their legacy and what they did for hip-hop was so important and their music captures such a unique spirit for the listeners. I wanted to do right by that. I just worked hard and I put good people around me and fought to try and make the film that I believed was the best interpretation of what I saw.

Was the experience of working with ATCQ what you expected?

It was a lot of fun, exhilarating, frightening, grinding. I knew it would be hard but I didn’t realize how hard it would be. The shooting part of it was challenging and the editing was daunting.