The 5-Foot Assassin with the Roughneck Business

So, I’m at the Tribeca showing of “Beats, Rhymes & Life” – the forthcoming movie about a Tribe Called Quest’s life, death and possible rejuvenation.

Prior to seeing this movie, I know not very much about Tribe. I mean, I like them. I have their “People’s Instinctive Travels” album. “Left My Wallet in El Segundo” gets stuck in my head when I’m looking for my wallet. I can make sly Facebook status update references to “Can I Kick It” (incidentally, Phife Dawg’s least favorite of their songs). But, you know, knowledge? Uh-uh.

So when this movie starts waxing eloquent about the significance of the first eight words of “Buggin’ Out,” which is on their second album, my instinct is to discount it. Say, with the tolerance of a parent listening to their five-year-old’s shrieking over Justin Bieber. The way my friends probably do with me when I start talking about Radiohead.

Says ?uestlove: “’The way that I would describe that ‘Yo’ is the same way that NWA busted through the Martin Luther King ‘I have a dream’ piece of paper on the ‘Express Yourself’ video. Like, they busted through that piece of paper like ‘What!’”

But on reflection: ?uestlove is right. He’s right. Of course he's right.

Yo, microphone check, one two what is this? This is the groove, is what.

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