06/09/2026
Phife Dawg Recorded His Last Verses While D*ing β The Album Dropped After He Was Gone π€πποΈ
A Tribe Called Quest's final chapter is one of the most heartbreaking β and beautiful β stories in all of hip-hop.
Phife Dawg had battled diabetes for decades β undergoing a kidney transplant in 2008, battling add**tion to sugar, and facing the daily reality of a disease that was slowly winning. "It's really a sickness," he said. "Like straight-up dr*gs. I'm just ad**cted to sugar."
When Phife d*ed on March 22, 2016, the hip-hop community was devastated β not just because of the loss, but because ATCQ had never gotten a proper farewell. Most fans had given up on a full reunion. What they didn't know was that at the very end of Phife's life, the group was already deep into recording their most important album.
Against all odds, the album came together piece by piece β Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Elton John, Jack White, and Anderson .Paak all flew in to record live in the studio, then moved on. Q-Tip pulled the whole thing together, determined to honor his best friend.
The album, We Got It From Hereβ¦ Thank You 4 Your Service, dropped in November 2016 β eight months after Phife passed. It contained a full tribute track called "Lost Somebody." Phife's voice was everywhere on that record β proof he had given everything he had left.
And it didn't stop there. Years later, using notes Phife left behind about how he envisioned his solo album sounding, his estate completed and released Forever on March 22, 2022 β six years to the day he d**d.
He never got to hear the applause. But he left the verses β and that's enough. π€πποΈ