14 Facts About Phife Dawg

Malik Izaak Taylor, known professionally as Phife Dawg, was a Trinidadian-American rapper and a member of the group A Tribe Called Quest with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.

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.

Phife Dawg's mother settled in the St Albans neighborhood of Queens when she was 13 years old, and Phife Dawg was raised in the same neighborhood.

Phife Dawg 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.

Phife Dawg 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.

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.

In 2013, it was reported that Phife Dawg was working on another solo album, MUTTYmorPHosis.

Phife Dawg spent four months working on the album before his death; it was completed by the surviving members and released on November 11,2016.

Phife Dawg was a fan of the New York Knicks, and was a playable character in the video games NBA 2K7 and NBA 2K9.

Phife Dawg described himself as a "funky diabetic" in the single "Oh My God" from A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 album Midnight Marauders.

Phife Dawg 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.

Phife Dawg's work has been cited as an influence on Kanye West, Jill Scott, The Roots and Common, while the 1991 album The Low End Theory is considered one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever.

In 2024, Phife Dawg was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of A Tribe Called Quest.