Egos and hurt feelings threaten to undo the group, but, really, what appears to be estranging Kamaal Fareed from Malik Taylor is a complex fraternal commitment. Taylor, whose stage name is Phife Dawg, has both serious diabetes and, as he admits, a serious sugar jones (this might be the only act in pop music whose addict has a sweet tooth). Fareed, who’s better known as Q-Tip, appears to have been overly concerned about Taylor’s health. He was a nag. He also became the star of the outfit. Fareed raps conversationally. He sounds in need of Sudafed. Taylor is the cleverer lyricist. But Fareed has a jazzy sense of structure and works obsessively hard - he seems like a genius. Stardom was something he wanted even if he might deny it (Taylor would call that lying).
In the 1980s, A Tribe Called Quest started as a quartet in Queens, and, after Q-Tip’s insistence that each member yield to the greater good of the group, Jarobi White went his own way (he’s since been touring with them, partly out of support of Taylor). Taylor and the group’s inventive, amiable DJ - Ali Shaheed Muhammad - remained, and two stupendous albums - 1991’s “The Low End Theory’’ and 1993’s “Midnight Marauders’’ - were recorded.
Muhammad does speak in the film, but what you remember most about him here is the stoic way he observes the quarrel between his two friends. Psychically, he’s still standing behind two turntables. He does as much observing as Rapaport does, and you leave with the sense that his equanimity is the group’s tacit spiritual bond. The only rap group that’s lowered its guard to this extent is the very different Public Enemy, whose members let Robert Patton-Spruill enshrine them in the underseen documentary “Welcome to the Terrordome.’’
