Just about everyone who lived through the ‘90s has had an A Tribe Called Quest moment. Maybe it was the first time you heard one of the trio’s classic hip-hop hits like “Check the Rime” or “Scenario” on a college radio station. Or seeing the video for “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” on Yo! MTV Raps. It could have been a mix tape you made with “Bonita Applebaum” on it. Or the revelation that “Can I Kick It?” sampled Lou Reed and “We Can Get Down” borrowed from Bill Cosby and Billy Squier.

Whether you were a hardcore hip-hop head or someone who rarely listened to rap music, there was no denying Tribe’s broad appeal.

The Brooklyn-based group officially broke up after a decade together in 1998, and their split was a source of angst for their many fans. It has also been the inspiration for a new documentary by actor Michael Rapaport; “Beats Rhymes & Life” not only tells the story behind Tribe’s classic hits, but also examines the dynamic between group members, specifically the complex relationship of Malik "Phife" Taylor (now based in Oakland) and rapper Q-Tip.

“I was always unsatisfied with why the group broke up,” said Rapaport, in S.F. with Phife to promote the film. “Whenever I would see somebody from Tribe, I would always ask, will the group make more music?”

The first-time director compares the group’s importance to Led Zeppelin or the Ramones, and though Tribe has sometimes been called the Beatles of hip-hop, he sees more parallels with the Rolling Stones: Q-Tip, the Jagger-esque enigmatic charismatic frontman; Phife, the Keith Richards-like average-Joe sidekick who moved to the East Bay in 2006; and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, the low-key beat keeper reminiscent of Charlie Watts.

“Tribe Called Quest, their music was for everybody,” Rapaport says. “The hardcore hip-hop fans in the club, on the corner, and the whitest of the white [people].”

The film, set mostly in New York City, details the vibrant hip-hop culture of a golden age Tribe helped to create, but also gets inside the personal reasons for the group’s dismantling.

Eschewing label politics, rumored to be a big issue for the musicians, Rapaport focuses on how Phife’s health issues—and Q-Tip’s celebrity ambitions—were a long-simmering source of conflict. Phife, a diabetic with a sugar addiction, withers under the rigors of touring and Q-Tip’s criticisms; Q-Tip’s love of the spotlight is evident during a radio interview, as is his disappointment when Phife is hospitalized and misses an appearance on “The Dennis Miller Show.” But Q-Tip also agrees to do a reunion tour to help Phife pay his medical bills, and sends his friend a supportive text just before Phife undergoes surgery.

“There’s a movie that we could have cut together that’s more concert-based, that’s a celebration of every song and every sample,” Rapaport says. Instead of premiering at Sundance, “That movie would go straight to DVD and it’d be for the Tribe-centric fans.”

Perhaps surprisingly for a documentary about an East Coast group, the Bay Area plays a supporting role. While, logically, much of the film takes place in New York in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the Bay Area provides the backdrop for the film’s pivotal moment: a 2008 reunion show at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, when the two lifelong friends get into an ugly argument as the camera rolls. All of a sudden, what started out as a light-hearted love letter to a favorite group from a bygone era becomes a more nuanced, humanistic story.

Besides the Shoreline, the UCSF Medical Center also makes a brief cameo, as does Oakland’s Lake Merritt.

“As far as the Bay Area and hip-hop, they’ve been doing their thing for a long time,” says Phife, a former labelmate of E-40, Too $hort, and Souls of Mischief. “What I like about the Bay Area is the hustle and grind of it all.’

Well known for his love of sports, Phife also voices his approval for the Warriors’ selection of Mark Jackson as their new head coach. “Who would have thought I’d move all the way to Oakland and my favorite Knick of all time would be the coach?,” he muses.

Ultimately, the beef with Q-Tip—which Phife says is “water under the bridge” —doesn’t detract from the group’s legacy. Yet it does help explain why they haven’t made an album together in 13 years. Asked to describe Tribe’s contributions to music, Phife demurred — “I’m the type to let the people answer that” — but suggested one reason for their long-lasting appeal was the fact they maintained their integrity.

“Once you let these labels take over, they take over mind, body and soul… we didn’t let them get away with that,” he said, noting that the group chose every single except the Will Smith-esque “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo,” which the label picked.

“At the end of the day, at least we have our respect, street cred, just love in general. Our music was truth. We didn’t let them take that away from us.”

Beats Rhymes & Life opens in Bay Area theaters Friday.