This might seem like a strange place to put this, but given how big of a sports fan Phife Dawg was, it’s fitting.
Thankfully, obituaries aren’t my thing, but wanted to jot a few things down about an underappreciated hip hop legend. Pardon the rambling, not working on a lot of sleep owing to the fact I “got on the (early) flight and I ended up in Boston.”
Phife Dawg, born Malik Isaac Taylor, is gone at 45 and it sucks. A Tribe Called Quest is my favourite musical group ever, Midnight Marauders is my favourite rap album and Low End Theory isn’t far behind (oddly, I probably listen to Beats Rhymes and Life more than either, even though it isn’t nearly as good. It’s the most Phife-heavy album to me, maybe that’s why? Their earlier work is great too and even the Love Movement has its moments).
While Q-Tip was always the better known MC, largely because of his voice and uniqueness, Phife could flat-out rap.
I liken it to Outkast or even the Wu Tang Clan – Andre gets the props and attention because he was a bit out there and skilled, but different, but Big Boi was every bit as good and one of the best to ever do it in his own right. With the Wu, Method Man has always been the biggest star, even if others matched or even exceeded his talent – think Ghostface Killah. Guru has gained respect in death that he maybe never had in life because he worked with the greatest producer ever in DJ Premier. Maybe Phife will get more recognition now as well.
Maybe it’s part of the reason Tribe broke up (haven’t seen the documentary yet, but definitely will soon). Maybe Phife felt like he “didn’t get the props that he damn well deserved” to borrow a line. Tribe worked because the two were both show-stoppers in different ways (plus Ali Shaheed Muhammed’s unreal production). Q-Tip was smooth, lyrical, conscious, Phife was raw but, pardon the pun, on point, energetic, witty, magnetic.
Tribe broke down doors in rap and took the art form to a better place, inspiring countless groups and artists to be great themselves.
For me personally, Phife and Tribe got me hooked on rap music. I had listened to a ton of West Coast stuff and that was what I was into and eventually it would be New York, Philadelphia and Chicago (Wu, Mobb Deep, Nas, Common, The Roots etc.) but I could never go a week without listening to Midnight Marauders once I heard it. I even once sold the CD (after dubbing it onto a tape, of course) thinking the tape would be fine, then bought it back less than a month later because I realized the tape would be obliterated in no time. I think it’s the only record I’ve purchased twice (talking physical copies).
When I was in Ottawa this pre-season, I found Midnight Marauders on wax and bought it for a third time. It’s been my screensaver on my phone ever since.
Will always regret not going to the Up In Smoke Tour in Toronto in 1996 and seeing Tribe, but thanks to the Raptors bringing in Phife as a halftime show a couple of years ago, at least I got to see him live once.
I’ll stand by this, no hip hop group ever released back-to-back albums as good as Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Both are near flawless. Both are on my all-time rap top-10 list.
You didn’t have to be an early-mid-90s Knicks fan to feel what Phife was saying back then.
His best sports lines or verses:
“I skate on your crew, like Mario Lemieux.”
“With all these trials and tribulations, yo, I’ve been affected
And to top it off, Starks got ejected.”
“Fuck around and have your heart, like Jordan had Starks.
While you playing hokey pokey, there’s no time to be dokey
Cuz I come out to play every night like Charles Oakley.”
(For the old people who remember pagers) “The “S” in Skypage really stands for sex, beeper’s going off like Don Trump gets checks, keep my bases loaded like the New York Mets. At times I miss the pager, so you don’t get vexed.”
“Comin with more hits than the Braves and the Yankees.”
“Bo knows this, and Bo knows that, but Bo don’t know jack, ’cause Bo can’t rap.”
“93 means skills are a must, so never lack Sit back and learn, come now watch the birdie Your styles are incomplete, same as Vinny Testaverde Battling, whenever — hot Damn! Give me the microphone boy, one time, bam!”
And the unbeatable one:
“Hip-hop scholar since being knee-high to a duck /The height of Muggsy Bogues, complexion of a hockey puck.”
More on his love of basketball.
Phife picked his five favourite Tribe tracks here.
“Reserve a spot for me in hip hop’s hall of fame.”
No doubt, Phife.
RIP
