Here’s How The Hip Hop Community Mourned The Loss Of Phife Dawg

You know that feeling when you wake up in the middle of the night and are filled with dread because something doesn’t feel right? That happened to me last night, around 4AM. The bar under my apartment was unusually quiet. A trash truck down the street made an unnatural rattle when it passed my window. The earth’s orbit felt off-kilter. I picked up my phone and — BAM — the news that Phife Dawg passed away was exploding.

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Usually I’m good about springing to action to bang out a wee hours blog post for the site like I did for David Bowie. I couldn’t last night. This one wrecked me. I spent the next hour listening to A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory until 5-something AM, tossing around until I eventually got back to sleep with a pair of headphones in.

A Tribe Called Quest was the soundtrack to my vampirish night owl tendencies — Like a Coltrane you can bob you head to while mellowing out. I was that stereotypical stoner white kid in college who threw on “Scenario” or “Can I Kick It?” or “Check The Rhyme” or “Electric Relaxation” while sparking up a bowl late night with friends. You know the scene: You get back from the bars, throw some pizza rolls in the microwave, pack a bowl, and just vibe to great tunes in contemplative, reflective silence. It’s was a meditative ritual. it felt very good for my soul at the age of 20 and 21. I think there’s at least one Tribe song on every single mix CD I ever gave a girl from high school to when mix CDs stopped being a thing.

Tribe was a big part of my musical vibe as a human being. They still are.

Which is why it sucks to lose an OG like Phife. His influence transcended everyone in the hip hop game, yet was so humble about it. Humility was his modus operandii:

 

Anyway, I just had to write that it. Sorry for the long, incoherent ramble, I just can’t express how much it sucks to lose Phife. There are plenty of OGs still in the game, it just feels like a golden era of vintage hip hop died with him. Now we’re left with bombastic rhetoric and egomaniacal personalities screaming into the cultural wind like neglected art school children on Adderall. It sucks.

Here’s how the rap world mourned the loss of an icon.

Rest in beats, Phife.

https://twitter.com/joeyBADASS/status/712608803376799744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/SnoopDogg/status/712533114917150720\

https://twitter.com/MacMiller/status/712526600978440192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw