Michael Rapaport: My freestyling ability is nonexistent. I can't even...

I don't want to misrepresent who I am personally. I don't want my kids to see me on a talk show and say, "You're talking different" or "You look different, dad." I'm not gonna be an animal; I know how to conduct myself.

Michael Rapaport

dad animal kids

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.

Michael Rapaport

emotional brother song

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

Michael Rapaport

wild-side song kids

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.

Michael Rapaport

roots interesting thinking

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.

Michael Rapaport

new-york play father

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.

Michael Rapaport

daddy mean people

When you're playing this bad of a character, it's obviously not reality for someone who's not living that life.

Michael Rapaport

character reality

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.

Michael Rapaport

girlfriend three reason-why

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.

Michael Rapaport

groups enemy thinking

Sometimes you know about a job four months in advance. Sometimes you know about a job four days in advance. It's all different, and my thing is just to try to stay prepared. It's like being a boxer. You never know when you're going to get your next fight, so you have to just stay in shape, mentally and physically and creatively.

Michael Rapaport

fighting trying jobs

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.

Michael Rapaport

hip-hop people years

I love doing things that are titillating. I think race can be very funny, and I think I'm very comfortable discussing it and bringing it up.

Michael Rapaport

discussing race thinking

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

Michael Rapaport

independent too-much thinking

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.

Michael Rapaport

hips hip-hop sports

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

Michael Rapaport

quests community together

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.

Michael Rapaport

actors new-york sound

At the end of the day, my sole goal, when I go into any scene, is to try to be as honest as I possibly can, and then everything else is second. The most important thing for me is to just be as honest as I possibly can.

Michael Rapaport

the-end-of-the-day important goal

To be able to play somebody that says and does pretty much whatever he wants is great.

Michael Rapaport

doe want play

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

Michael Rapaport

documentaries taking-a-break hip-hop

Each environment is different, each job is different, and each realm of creativity that they give you is different. You try to do the best you can and put as much time into it as you can, but different jobs have different circumstances come about.

Michael Rapaport

creativity jobs giving

My freestyling ability is nonexistent. I can't even write a verse if I tried to sit anywhere and write one. Being a good rapper is hard to do. I'm a good Rapaport, but that's about it.