Beats, Rhymes and Phife\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The year was 1990, and I was a senior in High School. Every day that I came home from school, I would look forward to my favorite show; Yo! MTV Raps. This is where I got to see the videos for the songs I was listening to, as well as discover new artists. On this day I found a new group, rather a Tribe, with a very distinct sound\u2026they were talking about El Segundo.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0From the moment I saw the dancing stick figure in the video, I was hooked. I went to the store the next day to pick up People\u2019s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. I wanted to hear more of Q-Tip\u2019s lyrics. The first track on the record, \u201cPush It Along\u201d, changed my whole view of this Tribe. When the second verse started, it wasn\u2019t Tip\u2019s voice coming through my boom box, it was someone else. It was a small portion of a seven plus minute song, but I wanted to hear more from this Phife character. I didn\u2019t hear anything more from him on that whole first side of the tape. I was beginning to think he was a featured artist, and I was going to have to go and find his solo tape. Then, toward the end of side 2, he was back. Again, a verse here, a verse there and then he was gone.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The end of 1991 brought the sophomore effort from ATCQ, and I had to have it. By this time, I knew who Phife Dawg was and I knew that he would be on that record. What I didn\u2019t know was that this was going to be his coming out party. The first track was \u201cExcursions\u201d, and I was upset to find that Phife wasn\u2019t rhyming on it at all. Then it happened\u2026..track two; \u201cBuggin\u2019 Out\u201d. Yo! Microphone check, one two, what is this? The five foot assassin with the roughneck business\u2026. Phife was talking about Arsenio, the Winans family, Dr. Pepper, New Balance shoes; I couldn\u2019t keep up with him! Where was Tribe hiding this crazy talent on their first record? I continued listening and soaking up all of Phife\u2019s lyrical content, and then \u201cScenario\u201d happened. The greatest line that I had ever heard delivered, the \u201cooooooh shit\u201d moment of \u201coh shit\u201d moments happened. \u201cI\u2019m all that and then some, short, dark, and handsome, bust a nut inside your eye, to show you where I come from.\u201d WHAT JUST HAPPENED? DID HE SAY THAT?? Phife had arrived, and everyone stood and took notice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Two years later, Tribe delivered us Midnight Marauders. This is, in my opinion, the most cohesive Tribe record of all. This album was the equivalent of a runner hitting their stride. If I\u2019m putting only one Quest record in my top 10 of all time, this is the one. I always thought that Phife was at his overall best on this album. From \u201cAward Tour\u201d to \u201cOh My God\u201d, everything he did was at a level of maturity that he hadn\u2019t shown yet. But when he drops in on \u201cLyrics to Go\u201d, he sets the competition straight: \u201cTalk a lot of trash, but no one can seem to beat it, pull out your microphone, and watch the Phifer make you eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0When Q-Tip was delivering lines that were above my head, and Ali Shaheed was dropping beat combinations too complex for me to comprehend, Phife was always there for me. Phife Dawg was the \u201cevery man emcee\u201d. He spoke from the heart, his lyrics came from the soul, and he said things that I could understand. It was like one of my friends had made it big time. Someone who I went out and played ball with. Someone I hung out on the corner with. Phife was the most famous \u201cone of the guys\u201d out there. Phife was one of my favorite emcees.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0On this day, 26 years after my discovery of ATCQ, it is time to say good-bye. Good-bye to the five foot assassin. Good-bye to the funky diabetic. Good-bye my Zulu brother, Malik. Good-bye to the Phifer. While he has left us in physical form, his words will live on forever. We will take solace in the music that he left behind and imagine the music he and his good friend, J-Dilla, are putting together now. Fresh in Peace, Brother Malik.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beats, Rhymes and Phife \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The year was 1990, and I was a senior in High School. Every day that I came home from school, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[283,1457],"class_list":["post-12711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freshradio","tag-phife","tag-phife-dawg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12713,"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12711\/revisions\/12713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsfreshradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}