Source: WENN

A few things are just a given in the rap game: money, cars, chains, groupies, baby mamas, and, of course, a kid or two,or three, or four— except for these rappers it’s not. Breaking the overly fertile, be fruitful and multiply like Abraham and ‘dem stereotype that characterizes most rappers these days, these rhyme spitters have managed to not let the groupie love go to their head — or to at least remember to wrap it up every time they decide to get it in with the chick who makes her way from the concert to the hotel lobby to the hotel room.

We can’t help but appreciate these guys who know sprinkling their seed, and their hard-earned money in the form of child support payments, all across the globe is not a good look. Here are nine rappers who are most definitely not the father!

*Waits for the bandwagon fans to start running back*

If you ever doubted that D’Angelo would get back into tip-top shape, both musically and physically, kick yourself. In his first real magazine spread since he last did press for the Voodoo album, D’Angelo is looking as he should: a little older, but a lot of fine. Despite the shocking mugshots we were exposed to after his run-ins with the law over the last few years (my corneas still burn), these few images today of the man behind the neo-soul music we bumped so hard are definitely pleasing to the eye. Thanks GQ!

The singer gets all suit and tie fresh on us for the shoot, and even gives us a bit of that wonderful gaze (and those lips!) that we like to see. I could do without the cigarette in the first shot, but it’s not something I would kick him out of the bed for (as long as he didn’t bring the cigarette into the bed…). As you can tell, I’m glad he’s looking delicious, but I’m more glad to hear the new music he plans to drop soon. His few features on songs with folks like Common and Q-Tip, as well as his own song “I Found My Smile Again” during his reclusive period were nice, but I need an album, boo! Until we can get that in stores, don’t forget that D will be a headliner at this year’s Essence Fest, so you’ll have a chance to see this brown sugar in real time and jam like it’s 1995 again. Pick up the June issue of GQ to get your fix of this beautiful man, and find out what he has to say about the music industry, and how the “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)” video hurt him as a musician. Here’s a quick excerpt courtesy of the illustrious men’s magazine that is GQ:

“One time I got mad when a female threw money at me onstage, and that made me feel like f-cked-up, and I threw the money back at her. I was like, ‘I’m not a stripper.’”

On the last day of the eight-month tour, Questlove says D’Angelo told him, “Yo, man, I cannot wait until this f-cking tour is over. I’m going to go in the woods, drink some hooch, grow a beard, and get fat.” Questlove thought he was joking. “I was like, ‘You’re a funny guy.’ And then it started to happen.That’s how much he wanted to distance himself.”

Source: Gregory Harris/GQ

Source: Gregory Harris/GQ

What do you think of D’Angelo’s look? Still got it or no thanks?

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So I’ve been following the dust-up around the much-anticipated “Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest”, which is set to premiere nationwide this weekend.  For those who don’t know, the film, directed by actor turned filmmaker Michael Rapaport, documents A Tribe Called Quest and their legendary reunion for the 2008 Rock the Bells Tour.  The group, which is probably most known for The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauder albums, split in 1998 on the eve of their fifth and final album, “The Love Movement”.

Having forged a nearly two decade long run as one of the most innovative and influential hip hop bands of our era, who wouldn’t want to see the Queens NY collective Check The Rhyme just one more time?
Despite the enthusiasm around the film, the path to getting the doc to the big screen has not been smooth.  In fact, it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to both applause and controversy as, prior to the screening,  Q-Tip took to Twitter to express his opposition.  ”I am not in support of the A Tribe Called Quest documentary,” he wrote.  ”The filmmaker should respect the band to the point of honoring the few requests that was made [about] the piece.”

Q-Tip later clarified his remarks – sort of – by saying that he, and fellow band members Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jabori White, were done wrong.  In particular, he took issue with being denied production credits (including executive producer credits), final edits to the trailer (which had been released on YouTube before the group could see it) and the film itself (scenes of which members claim were deleted  before the Sundance debut).   Q-Tip also accused Rapaport of engaging in shadiness and in a wildly-circulated interview with MTV News, revealed an e-mail that had been accidentally sent to him by the producers, which among other things stated: “First off let’s close the Billing Block and put it on the poster so they can’t get on that. Then we’ll f— them on everything else.”

Well it certainly looks like someone forgot industry rule number 4080…

Q-Tip ended the MTV News interview with this message of caution for other hip-hop emcees looking to have their story told: “Be in charge of your own stories, you hear me? Tell your own stories. We’re griots, look that up. We’re griots, man. We’ve gotta pass our own stories on. This is a part of our tradition, as African Americans predominantly.  Let’s tell our own stories.  We can let everybody come in and participate with us in this but don’t fall for the Hollywood.”

To some extent Q-Tip does have a point.  What few folks understand is how people gain and lose power through the way particular stories are told.  Every aspect of black life has been distorted by the mainstream because we have failed – by sheer ignorance or by circumstance – to keep an accurate archive of our perspective of the black experience.  Not saying that Rapaport couldn’t have captured the true essence of the group — or even that he doesn’t have a right to —  but he is still an outsider whose narrative and final cuts are based on his own familiarity with group members.  And you do have to wonder how this doc would have been different if told through the perspective of the band members.  Would they have emphasized the tumultuous relationship between lifelong friends Q-Tip and Phife, whose personal blow-up is captured?  Or would we see a more private account of what got the group together — their rise and ultimately their split?

Prior to the film’s limited screen release (in New York and LA), Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad interviewed with New York radio station Hot 97 and said that they have officially squashed their beef with Rapaport.   They urged fans to go see the flick.  Which got me wondering about the “controversy” itself.  I mean, I did get the issues of attribution, but what I didn’t get was that if Q-Tip believes he’s getting screwed out of credit, then why is he still telling people to go see the film?   While I agree with him on the whole, “we got to tell our own story” bit, he really needs to make up his mind about whether or not he is down. Because right now it’s sounding like fake controversy just to make sure this film opens in the top five.  And to that, I say, relax yourself, please settle down: it’s a film about A Tribe Called Quest. Why wouldn’t we go see it?

Charing Ball is the author of the blog People, Places & Things.

(Rolling Stone) — With all the interpersonal drama surrounding the documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, it seemed doubtful that any one of the contending Tribe members would bother to show for the film’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi sat out Sundance in January – only to air their grievances a month later on MTV.  So there was general surprise when Ali appeared at the premiere last night. Even his onetime partner, Phife Dawg, was startled.  ”I really didn’t know that he was coming,” said Phife. “That makes me really happy.”

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(AOL Black Voices) — Q-Tip and his former A Tribe Called Quest bandmates have finally thrown their support behind ’Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest,’ actor Michael Rapaport’s documentary about the Queens group.  When a trailer of the film leaked onto the Internet last December, Q-Tip took to Twitter to denounce the movie. These days it seems like whatever beef was cooking between the group and Rapaport has been forgiven, or at least forgotten, according to the following interview with MTV News.  The doc, which premiered this winter at Sundance, was picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures. It will screen again in April at the Tribeca Film Festival.  Still, long before the Tribe doc, hip-hop culture has been covered in all sorts of cinema verité glory since the early ’80s. Here are our picks for the top 10 essential rap music documentaries that should be part of everyone of every real fans’ collection.

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