Phife Dawg

Phife Dawg was born Malik Izaak Taylor on November 20, 1970, in Queens, New York City, the son of Trinidadian immigrant parents Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, a poet, and Walt Taylor. Born prematurely, his twin brother Mikal died shortly after birth. He first met his friend Q-Tip at the age of two. At nine years old, Phife Dawg suggested that they should rap, after hearing "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang for the first time. He attended Pine Forge Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school near Philadelphia, for his freshman year of high school, later transferring to Springfield Gardens High School in Queens. ==Career==

Phife Dawg formed A Tribe Called Quest, then simply named Quest, with Q-Tip and DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad in 1985; the group was later expanded with the addition of Jarobi White. A Tribe Called Quest were closely associated with fellow hip-hop acts De La Soul and Jungle Brothers, with the groups collectively known as the Native Tongues. A Tribe Called Quest was initially offered a demo deal by Geffen Records in 1989, but signed to Jive Records to release its 1990 début ''People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm''. A single, "Sole Men," was released one day after Phife's death (March 23, 2016) along with a posthumously released video. Another single, "Nutshell", was released online in April 2016 along with a posthumously released video. That night, Phife and Q-Tip decided to put aside their differences and record a new group album, We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, in secrecy. Phife Dawg's second solo album, Forever, was released on March 22, 2022, the sixth anniversary of his death. ==Personal life==

Taylor was married to Deisha Head-Taylor. He was a fan of the New York Knicks, and was a playable character in the video games NBA 2K7 and NBA 2K9. Illness and death Taylor was diagnosed with diabetes in 1990. Conflicting reports indicated it as type 1, while other sources reported it as type 2. He described himself as a "funky diabetic" in the single "Oh My God" from A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 album Midnight Marauders. After the group disbanded, he continued playing live shows to help cover medical costs, and revealed in the 2011 documentary film Beats, Rhymes & Life that he was "just addicted to sugar ... it's really a sickness." On March 22, 2016, Taylor died at age 45 in his Oakley, California home due to complications of diabetes. ==Legacy==

Phife has been described as having had a "self-deprecating swagger," and his work with A Tribe Called Quest helped challenge the "macho posturing" of hip-hop music during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The location is significant as the site of the video for A Tribe Called Quest's song "Check the Rhime." In 2024, Phife Dawg was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of A Tribe Called Quest. ==Discography==

Studio albums • Ventilation: Da LP (2000) • Forever (2022) Guest appearances ==Filmography==

• 1993: ''Who's the Man?'' – Gerald • 1998: The Rugrats Movie – Newborn Baby • 2007: NBA 2K8 – Himself • 2011: Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest – Himself • 2017: NBA 2K18 - Himself ==References==