Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Christgau's Consumer Guide
Entertainment Weekly	A
NME	7/10
Q
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
The Source	4/5
Spin	7/10

Beats, Rhymes and Life is the fourth album of the hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Released in 1996, it followed three years after the highly regarded and successful Midnight Marauders. This album is a departure from the joyful, positive vibe of the earlier albums and is regarded as the group's darkest album in content. It reached number-one on the Billboard 200 and Top R&B Albums charts.

The album was also the first to feature production work from The Ummah, a group that was composed of Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jay Dee. One topic on this album was the Death Row vs. Bad Boy rivalry. The album frequently features rapper Consequence, Q-Tip's cousin.

It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album in 1997 and contains a single titled "1nce Again" that was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group the same year. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA on October 27, 1998, even though it was not regarded as highly as the group's first three albums.

The video version of "Stressed Out" has Phife Dawg rhyming on the second verse instead of Consequence. However, Phife's verse does not appear on the album.

In the song "Keeping It Moving", Q-Tip responds to the diss comments made about him in MC Hammer's songs "Break 'Em Off Somethin' Proper" and "Funky Headhunter", as well as Westside Connection's song "Cross 'Em out and Put a K". In the first verse, he says that comments previously made about the West Coast were not intended to be a diss and that people should not misinterpret his lyrics.

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Wikipedia