Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest has passed away at the young age of 45.
The ‘Five-Foot Assassin’ whose real name was Malik Taylor, had been battling his health for years, consistently fighting Type-1 diabetes, which he developed in 1990. He received a kidney transplant from his wife in 2009.
He co-founded the A Tribe Called Quest in 1985 with his classmates Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. The band’s biggest hit in the UK was 1991’s ‘Can I Kick It?’ which sampled Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side and was frankly a departure from the philosophical focus of much of their output.
They had recently reformed to perform the song on Jimmy Fallon’s US chat show, as they marked the 25th anniversary of their debut album, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.
Despite the song’s enduring appeal, Phife was not a fan. “It’s hard for me to get into Can I Kick It? for the simple fact that I hated my voice back then,” he told Rolling Stone. “It was high-pitched…. and I couldn’t stand it.”
Disagreements between Q-Tip and Phife eventually derailed the group and in 1998 they announced their fifth album, The Love Movement, would be their last.
The news of Phife Dawg’s death was confirmed by Statik Selektah, and many veteran Hip Hop artists, including Aesop Rock, Chuck D and El-P, who have taken to social media to express their condolences as well.
BBC 6 Music DJ Gilles Peterson said Phife and Q-Tip “complimented [sic] each other like Lennon and McCartney”, adding “their albums changed my life”.
No details surrounding Phife’s exact cause of death have been revealed as African Voice went to press.
