Phife Dawg, A Tribe Called Quest Member, Dead At 45

Rapper Phife Dawg, a member of A Tribe Called Quest, has died at the age of 45 due to health problems.

A TRIBE CALLED QUEST’S PHIFE DAWG DEAD AT 45

News of the rapper’s death spread over Twitter after Rolling Stone confirmed the news Wednesday morning. An official statement has yet to be released. The late rapper had been suffering from health issues over the past years and underwent a kidney transplant in 2008 to deal with his longtime battle with Type 1 diabetes.

“It’s really a sickness,” Taylor said in the band’s 2011 documentary, Beats, Rhymes & Life. “Like straight-up drugs. I’m just addicted to sugar.”

The rapper founded his group A Tribe Called Quest with his Queens, N.Y., friends Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White. The rappers recorded five albums in their time together: 1990’s People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, 1991’s The Low End Theory, 1993’s Midnight Marauders, 1996’s Beats, Rhymes and Life and 1998’s The Love Movement. Taylor released his only solo album, Ventilation: Da LP, in 2000.

Fans and celebrities took to social media to convey their sympathy and to remember the rapper.

Questlove posted a photo of the rapper and thanking him for his additions to the music world.

Phife forever 1970-2016. 1991 in Sept I went to visit Tariq at Millersville U in the middle of PA (Lancaster). Miles Davis had just passed & I went on a binge to study his post jazz works. Went to Sound Of Market to purchase Nefertiti, In A Silent Way & Live Evil—the only non jazz purchase I made that day ironically was the most jazziest album in that collection: #TheLowEndTheory by @ATCQ. —it was raining that day so somehow the 1…2 punch of “Nefertiti”/”Fall” just had me in a trance that train trip—even though I suspected there was a possibility that Tribe could possibly have made a better album then their debut (the perfect @@@@@ mic Source rating would be on stands in a week so I was right)—but I knew I wanted to save that listening for when I got up to the campus w Riq.—so some 90mins later when I get to his dorm–we ripped that bad boy open (I can’t describe the frustration that was CD packaging in 1991, just imagine the anger that environmentalists feel when all that paper packaging in Beats headphone gets wasted—it’s like that)—the sign of a true classic is when a life memory is burnt in your head because of the first time you hear a song. —Riq & I had this moment a few times, but the look on our faces when we 1st heard “Buggin Out” was prolly Me & Tariq’s greatest “rewind selector!” moment in our friendship. (Back then every MC’s goal was to have that “rewind!!!” moment. As in to say something so incredible. Or to catch you by surprise that it makes you go “DAAAAAYUM!!!”& you listen over & over—Malik “Phife” Taylor’s verse was such a gauntlet/flag planting moment in hip hop. Every hip hop head was just…stunned HE. CAME. FOR. BLOOD & was taking NO prisoners on this album (or ever again) we just kept looking at the speaker on some disbelief old timey radio Suspense episode. & also at each other “Phife is KILLIN!”–by the time we got to “Scenario” I swear to god THAT was the moment I knew I wanted to make THIS type of music when I grew up–(yeah yeah dad I know: “go to Juilliard or Curtis to make a nice living at “real music”) but he didn’t know that Phife & his crew already wrote my destiny. I ain’t look back since. THANK YOU PHIFE!

A photo posted by Questlove Gomez (@questlove) on Mar 23, 2016 at 1:49am PDT

Russell Simmons tweeted, “Damn. #RIPPhife one of the greatest to bless the mic”

Damn. #RIPPhife one of the greatest to bless the mic

— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) March 23, 2016

DJ Kalkutta tweeted, “more than just a fly mc who’s 5 foot 3 and very brave, phife is a legend who helped father hip hop’s golden era. RIP”

more than just a fly mc who’s 5 foot 3 and very brave, phife is a legend who helped father hip hop’s golden era. RIP pic.twitter.com/4w6zhiRSqp

— kalkutta (@djkalkutta) March 23, 2016