My wife and I have never been avid moviegoers, at least relative to other people we know. And now that we have two little ones at home, we’re lucky if we get out to the movies once or twice a year at most. So when we do venture out to the theater, we’re stubbornly selective about the films we see. About four years ago, she and I spent a gloriously lazy Saturday afternoon at the Sundance Kabuki Cinema in the heart of San Francisco’s Japantown, to watch a film that we had been eagerly awaiting since we first read about it a few months prior. The film in question was the Michael Rapaport-directed documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest.

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While we both enjoyed the film very much, my most vivid memory from that afternoon was the audience’s shared reaction when the opening credits rolled. About four-and-a-half minutes in, the iconic neon artwork flashed onto the screen, the heavy drums and scratches of “Can I Kick It?” kicked in (appropriately enough), and every head in the theater instinctively began to nod up and down, in unison. Goosebumps were unavoidable for me, and I suspect that an outbreak swept across the expanse of the packed auditorium. Indeed, the infectious energy, excitement and love for the film’s subject could not have been more palpable that afternoon, and it was beautiful to behold.

Justin Chadwick is a columnist for soulhead.com, whose #LongPlayLove series celebrates the anniversaries of albums that command a sentimental place in his mind, heart and soul. Follow his insatiable passion for music on Twitter @justin_chadwick.