Words matter. These are the best Michael Rapaport Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
To make independent films, you can’t think about them too much, ponder on them too much, get overwhelmed by the enormity of it.
I would love to document the Roots; I think they have an interesting story. 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.
In any relationship that comes to an end, there’s never just a baseline reason why. You say, ‘Oh, I broke up with my girlfriend.’ Someone says, ‘Why?’ You say, ‘Well, you got three hours? And then maybe after I tell you my version, you’ve got to talk to her.’
But it all came, and for me, hip-hop has done more for racial divide and racial sort of bringing together than anything in the last 30 years. Seeing people like Eminem sounding like somebody like Jay-Z and just the racial aspects of it all.
I had a boom box, but I didn’t go too far with it because I had a really, really big one. It was like the size of a suitcase, and I was just a little kid.
I don’t think the subject of a documentary film should be producers on it.
When I was a kid, my first favorite song was probably Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side.’
I’m identified as a New York actor, I sound like I’m from New York, and I couldn’t be more proud of it.
A Tribe Called Quest music was so inclusive, so conscious, it brought such a community together.
I heard Q-Tip on the Jungle Brothers’ song ‘The Promo.’ It was very exciting. It was very new. The music and the culture around hip-hop was evolving. I think there’s an emotional quality to their music and there’s a vulnerability to the music. For me, A Tribe Called Quest was my Beatles.
I grew up in New York City in the ’80s, and it was the epicenter of hip-hop. There was no Internet. Cable television wasn’t as broad. I would listen to the radio, hear cars pass by playing a song, or tape songs off of the radio. At that time, there was such an excitement around hip-hop music.
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.
So to compare the Beatles, obviously the Beatles are the Beatles, but in hip-hop terms, Tribe is the Beatles. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are the Beatles. Big Daddy Kane is Jimi Hendrix. It means that much to people that grew up with it.
Right now I’m taking a break from hip-hop documentaries. But I would do it if things lined up.
Only a genius can play a fool.
The thing about New York is you can leave your house without a plan and find the day. You can’t do that in Los Angeles. You need to get in your car, all this, you can’t just drive around like a lunatic. In New York, you can literally walk outside, and wind up anywhere.
The effect hip-hop had on me was enormous. I was exposed to it by happenstance. My father worked at a radio station in New York called WKTU Disco 92. It was the first radio station in New York City to play disco in the late ’70s.
Listen, I’m 41 years old. I’ve got two kids. I’ve got a career. The last thing I need to be doing is having a beef with A Tribe Called Quest. It’s silly and it was unnecessary. It ain’t the first time that a director hasn’t seen eye to eye with a subject and it ain’t going to be the last time.
