Today is a dark day for hip-hop and music everywhere. We lost a true pioneer, a legendary MC: Phife Dawg.
Phife was my favorite member of one of my favorite rap groups of all time, A Tribe Called Quest. Being a short guy, I gravitated toward him and his style instantly. He was one of, if not the most confident rappers with the smoothest delivery I've ever heard. His delivery meshed with Tribe's "kick & snare conversation" that they basically invented so well. There will never be a sound like it. He was also one of the best rhymers/most underrated story tellers who graced the mic. 8 Million Stories (my favorite Midnight Marauders track) is prime example of that. Phife's vibrato in his raps is unmatched. The positivity his words emitted is something I will always feel and carry in my heart. My brother and I would recite Check The Rhime word for word, trading lines like we were Tip and Phife, feeling the love and superior level of rapping when reciting it. Check The Rhime is my stand out Phife verse from The Low End Theory, his standout album.
Speaking on his Check The Rhime verse, remembering my interactions with the music as a kid or anything Phife Dawg right now makes me tear up. Simply trying to recite the lyrics like I use to/always did produces a mix of pain and happiness in my heart. This piece is more so for me then for you guys. It was extremely difficult to bring myself to write something about the 'five-foot freak'. I have countless things to say about the music he created, the mark he made on music history, how the music affected me and everything else under the sun. ATCQ's music has been in my ear since I was a child. My mom made sure it was a staple, but my hands uncontrollably trembled at each attempt this morning. Still feeling emotional as I write this small something, because for me, writing about Phife Dawg in the past tense doesn't feel right and won't ever feel right. Acknowledging the fact that a man who's music, verses, style and personality helped mold a side of me is gone is something I want to avoid. Phife Dawg's passing truly rumbled my world. I don't know how to handle it. I don't know what to say. I can't sum up a music legend of his magnitude in an article the day of his passing. Nor can I fully express how much he and Tribe's music means to me and the world. I'm selfish with the music I love and I love A Tribe Called Quest's music, Phife Dawg's hand in the group's music I love equally as much, and I'm not ready to say goodbye. I'm not ready to mourn someone that should still be here, to sum up a career that should still be on-going. Mourning someone I saw perform Can I Kick It a few months ago on Jimmy Fallon is something I can't sit with. I just wish I can go back because today is the worst day of the new year for a lot of us. Like me, I'm sure you wish it was a dream and A Tribe Called Quest could go on to plan a tour with De La Soul. That would have been a dream come true.
When my mind isn't discombobulated I'll go in depth to properly honor Phife. To properly express my admiration for what he did and remember him in a more vivid way. But for now, writing purely from a place of raw emotion and shock all I can do is continue to do what I've been doing, watching and listening to all things Phife Dawg, all things ATCQ (especially The Low End Theory). And thank Phife Dawg for the magnificent years I and others have had with what he, Ali Shaheed, Q-Tip and Jarobi White created. So for now, all I'm left with to say is Rhyme in Peace, Phife Dawg.
Listen to Some A Tribe Called Quest classic (classic Phife verses) below.
Photo Creds: thesource.com/thefindmag.com/giphy.com
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