A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg Dead at 45

A Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg passed away on Wednesday due to an unknown cause.

He was 45.

Phife battled health problems for years — he suffered from Type 1 diabetes — and underwent a kidney transplant back in 2008.

Along with rapper Q-Tip and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, A Tribe Called Quest was popular in the ’90s with songs like “Scenario,” “Can I Kick It?” and “Award Tour.”

“Malik was our loving husband, father, brother and friend,” his family said in a statement. “We love him dearly. How he impacted all our lives will never be forgotten. His love for music and sports was only surpassed by his love of God and family.”

R.I.P.

Phife-HipHop & Rap word Warrior, simple as that.Breathed it & lined rhyme into Sport.A true fire Social Narrator my bro #RIBeats ATCQforever

— Chuck D (@MrChuckD) March 23, 2016

RIP Phife Dog…. We appreciate U G!!!! pic.twitter.com/NA5PQbzP3z

— T.I. (@Tip) March 23, 2016

Rest in Peace Phife Dawg

— Sean Don (@BigSean) March 23, 2016

One of the most influential rappers on me and hip hop period! Rest In Peace Phife Dawg and thank you for the legacy you leave behind.

— Rappy Gilmore (@Logic301) March 23, 2016

Rest in peace legend… #PhifeDawg #ATCQ

— King Push (@PUSHA_T) March 23, 2016

https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/712623805437358080

Sending love, peace, &strength to the tribe. Just like your rhymes and music your spirit will live on forever. #PhifeDawg #tribecalledquest

— Janelle Monáe????? (@JanelleMonae) March 23, 2016

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