Malik Taylor, aka Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest, died on March 22, 2016. He was a founding member of ATCQ along with Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed, and Jarobi. Phife was known as Tha 5-Footer and was known for his clever wordplay and pride in his Trini heritage. He made his struggles with diabetes well known in his lyrics and sadly, it was complications from the disease that killed him.
He was working on ATCQ’s last album We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service when he died and the group, including Jarobi who had split years earlier, rejoined for the effort. The tour culminated in a performance at the 2017 Grammy awards where they paid tribute to Phife. He was only 45 when he died in his Bay Area home.