One of the many things that Michael Rapaport's documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest revealed to me is the deeper meaning of this bawdy line by Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor), a rapper whose life was ended this week by complications related to being a "funky diabetic":

Let me hit it from the back, girl, I won’t catch a hernia / Bust off on your couch, now you got Seaman’s furniture

If you were not from New York City, you would have easily missed the semen pun, which is important for cultural reasons. As one person explains in the documentary, the products of Seaman's Furniture, a company that went out of business in 2005 (and first opened its doors to business in 1933 in Brooklyn), meant very specific things (class position, aspirations, respectibility, and so on) to NYC's black community. Yes, Phife Dawg's line is bawdy but it is also rich in historical and cultural information.

To honor the short life of this short rapper (the "five-foot-freak"), EMP will screen Rapaport's informative documentary at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow. Dr. Daudi Abe, a Seattle-based writer, historian, and professor, will introduce film and certainly ask the question that defined Taylor's life: "You on point Phife?"