Being in second place sucks. Straight up. It usually means, especially in sports, that you've worked your ASS off at something. You put in all your blood, sweat, and tears and practiced until sunrise. You committed yourself one-hundred-and-one percent and yet still came up short. All the attention is on the other person; its like you want to scream I'M REALLY GOOD TOO GUYS. Malik Issac Taylor knew this position well. Malik, more famously known as Phife Dawg, is one of two emcees in the much-heralded hip-hop group, A Tribe Called Quest. It's simply "Tribe" to their devoted following - of which there is millions worldwide. The de-facto leader, though, isn't Phife; but instead the other emcee in the four-member group, Q-Tip. From jump, Q-Tip produced much of Tribe's catalog - and this was, naturally, a major reason for his position as leader. But Tip was also oozing charisma and had a distinctive (yet nasally) voice that stood-out. And the ladies loved him (and still do). Sure, Phife Dawg had these traits as well - just not as much. And in every famous duo - scanning every medium from music and comics, to film and beyond - there's always an alpha. There has to be. Otherwise you wouldn't have artists; you'd have a couple of mountain rams butting heads all damn day. And that's OK. Q-Tip, as great as he is, can't possibly mark every attribute on a listener's personality checklist. Tip and Phife, and other amazing groups like them (Outkast, fellow Native Tounges members De La Soul, etc...), are the ying to each other's yang. They fulfill the needs of the listener that the other one doesn't. Super-artistic weirdo? Q-Tip. Sport-loving, "guy's guy"? Phife. The person you hold on a pedestal? Q-Tip. The more down-to-earth, easier-to-relate-to one? Phife Dawg, no doubt about it. And that's why his death earlier this morning hit me (and those same millions of other devoted followers, I'm sure) so goddamn hard. Phife had a self-deprecating humor that was essential to his (and thus, Tribe's) entire make-up. He was like that one person at a party who makes you feel at ease when you were super-nervous before. He does a faux-jamaican patois routine that relaxes you, maybe. Indeed, Phife clowned around - but at the same time don't take him for a fool. He came-off as more street-smart than Tip who was definitely the more artistic, sensitive one (like Black Thought and Questlove); the rough-around-the-edges type who would definitely be the one protecting the other friend in a fight (maybe the one in 'Jam'?). Q-Tip might've been viewed as the more "artistic one" since he produced, or had his hands in, much of ATCQ's production - but Phife was no slouch when it came to his verses. Not necessarily a super lyrical miracle, Phife Diggy still knew how to hit you straight in the heart. That same self-deprecating humor breed humility - and Phife's humble side shines through on one of his rare solo tracks, '8 Million Stories'. Going the opposite route of the usually materialistic and "happy days"braggadocio rap route; Phife talks about having basically the worst fucking day ever (Ice Cube would not approve). We follow Phife as he tries, and tries again, to get laid. His jacket gets stolen - with all his money in it. The cops, of course, fuck with him. He gets robbed, this time in person (Phife's only 5'7", he says it in pretty much every Tribe song ever). AND JOHN STARKS (word to the 90's!) GETS EJECTED SON. '8 Million Stories' is, without a doubt, one of the best A Tribe Called Quest songs ever. And it's only Phife (except for Q-Tip's ad-libs at the end). Phife proves himself on 'Butter' as well, which is a cut off Tribe's earlier classic album 'Low End Theory'. Indeed, Phife definitely proved his worth as a member of the Tribe crew. I was lucky, no, PRIVILEGED enough to see A Tribe Called Quest live in 2004 at Rock The Bells in San Bernardino, CA. I still have my tattered and faded ticket somewhere. You have to understand, Tribe was thru back then, having split-up after 'The Love Movement' for various reasons (which would fester through-out their ill-fated "comeback" attempts later). So, at the time, this was a very big deal. Rock The Bells was in it's infancy as well, just transforming itself from a small Sunset Strip-held monthly event to a full-on musical festival. I traveled down from Oakland for the show, all of 19 years old. J.Dilla was there, as well as Madlib as the duo Jaylib. Ahhh memories. But I digress. That show would turn into one of the best nights of my life (ODB died that day too, it was kinda weird). They truly put on a 100% effort, and this was (at the time) thought-to-be their only comeback show as stated, exclusively at that Rock The Bells show. Obviously, that didn't happen. A Tribe Called Quest would go-on to attempt a couple other comeback attempts, with some better than others. But Tribe wasn't "Tribe" anymore though (see: Michael Rapport's excellent documentary 'Beats, Rhymes, and Life'). But for that period in the 90's, hardly anyone could touch them. Q-Tip might've been the sun to Phife's moon, but they need each other just the same. Rest in peace to one of the members of one of the most important hip-hop groups of all-time,; as well as one of my personally favorite groups - Phife Dawg. Condolences to his family and the rest of Tribe. I'm sure Phife is looking down from the clouds above, wearing a throwback Knicks Ewing jersey over his angels wings and sipping a Dr.Pepper. Salute.
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