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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

A Tribe Called Quest music was so inclusive, so conscious, it brought such a community together.

I love my kids, and the moments I have with them, and it’s kind of weird, it’s such an age old cliche, but the way that my sons, the way they make me feel when...

I don’t think the subject of a documentary film should be producers on it.

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...

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.

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...

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...

Right now I’m taking a break from hip-hop documentaries. But I would do it if things lined up.

When I was a kid, my first favorite song was probably Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side.’

Only a genius can play a fool.

Being No. 1. It’s talked about all of the time in hip-hop. ‘I’m still No. 1! I’m the best! I’m the greatest of all time!’ It’s the same mentality in sports.

To make independent films, you can’t think about them too much, ponder on them too much, get overwhelmed by the enormity of it.

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...

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...