Biography
-
Born
20 April 1970
-
Born In
St. Albans, Queens, New York, New York, United States
-
Died
22 March 2016 (aged 45)
Malik Isaac Taylor (November 20, 1970 – March 23, 2016), better known by his stage name Phife Dawg (or simply Phife), was an American rapper of Trinidadian descent, and a member of the legendary group A Tribe Called Quest with high school classmates Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (and for a short time Jarobi White). He was also known as the "Five Foot Assassin" and "The Five Footer", because he stood at 5 ft 3 in.
In addition to being a member of pioneering hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, Phife had performed in songs with other artists. He was featured on the Fu-Schnickens song "La Schmoove", Diamond D's "Painz & Strife" along with Pete Rock, Chi-Ali's "Let the Horns Blow" with Dres, Al' Tariq and Trugoy. In 2000, he released his debut solo album, Ventilation: Da LP. As of 2013 it was reported that Phife was working on a solo album titled MUTTYmorPHosis.
He was a playable character in the video game NBA 2K7 and NBA 2K9. Phife Dawg had mentioned being a "funky diabetic" in the single "Oh My God" from the group's third album, Midnight Marauders, and he did indeed have diabetes.
Phife Dawg was also an avid sports fan, so much so that he had been featured on various radio shows and sports programming on ESPN.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
