Michael Rappaport Clears The Air on "A Tribe Called Quest" Doc

For the past few months we've heard of the rift between Q-Tip and Michael Rappaport, the director behind the "A Tribe Called Quest" documentary. In preparation for the 2011 Sundance debut of the film, Mike gave MTV some insight on the 'drama.'

"I think the reason he did his little Twitter thing was because when he realized that the movie was coming to completion and going to get seen by people," Rapaport said. "I can’t really speak for him but I think he got a little nervous. He’s a very protective of the legacy of A Tribe Called Quest and the movie is a very honest depiction of my time with them and the information that I was given in interviews and content."

On Q-Tips requests:

"[Q-Tip] was speaking on behalf of himself and his biggest request was to be protective of the legacy of Tribe," Rapaport said. "So when the film was coming to completion, he got a little bit nervous because he wants to be seen in a certain way."

On the direction of the film: 

"I adore ATCQ and my intention wasn’t to ever make them feel uncomfortable but my intention was never to make a fluff piece so we kind of hit a bump in the road," he said. "And we promoted [the film together]. Q-Tip and me were on the radio talking about 'This is going to be the real story of A Tribe Called Quest.' When I say 'the real story' that doesn’t mean that there’s going to be crazy sh--. I didn’t unveil any secrets. From what I’ve learned Q-Tip and Phife have known each other their whole lives and they are like a family. And like any family, like any group — the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, EPMD, Public Enemy — they’ve had bumps in the road. I just think that because A Tribe Called Quest is so precious to fans, they were concerned about unveiling some of those things."

Source: MTV RapFix