Scribbler's 3-for-1 After Tuesday Special: A Tribute to Phife Dawg

Now y'all know that something or someone has to be special for me to buck the trend and post on a Wednesday when this blog is New Problem Tuesdays.  However, if special exceptions are made when popes, kings, queens, princes, princesses, presidents and political leaders pass away, then the same must be done for hip-hop royalty.  When I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed last night before bed and saw a report that Malik Taylor aka Phife Dawg--one-fourth of one of my favorite hip-hop groups of all time, A Tribe Called Quest--had passed away at the age of 45, my heart immediately sunk and I knew that his storied bout with diabetes was the culprit--although the family hadn't confirmed it yet.  It made me feel two different things: 1) I felt like I lost one of my favorite uncles or older brothers and 2) I hate diabetes with a passion because of what it can do to people over time, especially if not properly handled.  I immediately resigned myself to listen to my two favorite albums of theirs, The Low End Theory (1991) and Midnight Marauders (1993)--the latter being the very first hip-hop album that I ever purchased.  Then I thought, "How can I honor Phife Dawg without unveiling my 'Rave & Favorite Five' hip-hop duos & groups too soon and going out of order again and waiting until next Tuesday to do it?"  The answer is threefold: 1) Tribe albums will be "In Heavy Rotation" for a while; 2) by the time this post hit the Innanets, it will be an "11th Hour Post of the Week"; and 3) I can share my "Rave & Favorite Five" Phife Dawg verses.  (You see what I did there...you're welcome.)  Hence, I bring you the first "3-for-1 After Tuesday Special" in NPT history.  Let's roll...

#5 "CHECK THE RHIME" (The Low End Theory, 1991).  Much like vivid storytelling, the art of the back-and-forth exchange between dynamic duos is a lost art in today's era of hip-hop and Tip and Phife did numbers on one of the most classic songs not only in ATCQ's catalog, but in hip-hop history.  Along with bouncing off of Tip with "And me, the five footer/I kicks the mad style, so step off the frankfurter", Phife Dawg sets off "Check the Rhime" with the first full-length verse that gives the track a good amount of his vitality:

Now here's a funky introduction of how nice I am/Tell your mother, tell your father, send a telegram/I'm like an Energizer 'cause, you see, I last long/My crew is never ever wack because we stand strong/Now if you say my style is wack, there's where you're dead wrong/I slayed that Buddy in El Segundo then Push It Along. 

Throughout his entire verse, every bit of Phife's confidence, personality and delivery that us die-hard ATCQ fans have come to appreciate is on full display.  He doesn't overdo it, but he doesn't undersell it either as he's rarely the type to mail it in when given some of the best beats known to man.  Just one of many highlights on not only The Low End Theory, but also in Phife's illustrious career as an MC...

#4 "BUGGIN' OUT" (The Low End Theory, Jive, 1991).  Whereas I strongly believe that "Excursions" is one of the best non-intro leadoff tracks on a hip-hop album of all time, I wholeheartedly believe that "Buggin' Out" epitomizes how to continue the momentum of an album and Phife Dawg is the reason why.  Whereas Q-Tip is usually so smooth and poetic, Phife wrecks shop off the top with his classic bombastic delivery: "Yo, microphone check, one, two, what is this/The Five Foot Assassin with the roughneck business/I float like gravity, never had a cavity/Got more rhymes than the Winans got family."  (For the record, I always chuckle a little bit at that last line because that's a lot of rhymes, son.)  Then he riddles off more notable lines like "Styles upon styles upon styles is what I have/You wanna diss the Phifer, but you still don't know the half" and "I never walk the street thinking it's all about me/Even though deep in my heart, it really could be".  You know how dope his verse is and the different energy he brought to the table when 1) they let him shine at the end of the "Jazz (We've Got)" video and 2) he turned up the volume sonically and visually with an acid trip of an optic display.  Plus, this verse beat out other faves of mine like "Butter", "Show Business", "Oh My God" and "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)" to make the list, so yeah...he did that.

#3 "ELECTRIC RELAXATION" (Midnight Marauders, Jive, 1993).  Along with Snoop Doggy Dogg's Doggystyle, Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the 36 Chambers and Ice Cube's Lethal Injection, Midnight Marauders helped to define my ninth grade experience and "Electric Relaxation" was a huge part of that soundtrack.  Although both Q-Tip and Phife Dawg trade some of their most memorable bars, Phife may have stolen the show on this one.  Whereas Q-Tip flaunts more of a "slide the panties off with butter" flow, I always loved how Phife is just direct with his, especially in the second verse: "Original rude boy, never am I coy/You can be a shorty in my ill convoy/Not to come across as a thug or a hood/But hon, you got the goods, like Madelyne Woods."  (Madelyne Woods...yeah buddy...digressing...)  Then he gets even more frank and even comedic with these bars: "If my mom don't approve, then I'll just elope/Let me save the little man from inside the boat/Let me hit it from the back, girl, I won't catch a hernia/Bust off on your couch, now you got Seaman's furniture."  As a gullible fourteen-year-old boy who was barely a decent kisser, that last line flew all the way over my head until I realized he was actually spitting one of the raunchiest, but most clever and memorable double entendres ever.  That spot on that 1993-arse couch is probably still crusty as hell, but hey...it made for a dope line.

#2 "AWARD TOUR" (Midnight Marauders, Jive, 1993).  To understand just how much this song means to me, see the first sentence in the last paragraph.  First and foremost, I was blasting this riding down Rhode Island Avenue on my way to work today and was reminded of how much this beat kills and has held up over time.  Second, Q-Tip does his thing per the usual by providing his signature silky delivery and being a tough act to follow as he dropped one of his best rhymes.  Third, however, this is another instance where Phife Dawg comes on the track and firmly leaves an indelible imprint.  As much as I could drop a few lines here and there to make my point, one of Phife Dawg's shining moments from one of my favorite junior high school songs deserves to be showcased in its entirety:

Back in '89, I simply slid in the place/Buddy, buddy, buddy all up in your face/A lot of kids was busting rhymes, but they had no taste/Some said Quest was wack, but now is that the case/I have a quest to have a mic in my hand/Without that, it's like Kryptonite and Superman/So Shaheed, come in with the sugar cuts/Phife Dawg's my name, but on stage, call me Dynomutt/When was the last time you heard the Phife sloppy/Lyrics anonymous, you'll never hear me copy/Top notch baby, never coming less/Sky's the limit, you gots to believe up in Quest/Sit back, relax, get up out the path/If not that, here's a dance floor, come move that a**/Non-believers, you can check the stats/I roll with Shaheed and the brother Abstract/N****s know the time when the Quest is in the jam/I never let a statue tell me how nice I am/Coming with more hits than the Braves and the Yankees/Living mad phat like an oversized mampi/The wackest crews try to diss, it makes me laugh/When my track record's longer than a DC-20 aircraft/So next time that you think you want something here/Make something def or take that garbage to St. Elsewhere.

Bars...upon bars...upon bars is what he had.  Speaking of bars, quick sidebar...so there was this dude that I went to college with who, despite not being the world's best lyricist, shared one of his best kept secrets as a writer: "When you think of a line or two, write them down so that you won't forget and you may be able to use them later."  I am convinced that Phife was just one of those dudes who kept an arsenal of witty one-liners and put them all together in one masterpiece and I submit this verse as evidence of that brilliance.  Now I cannot begin to tell you how hard it was to rank this verse No. 2 because it's so nostalgic and vintage Phife Dawg.  Nevertheless, even this verse has a tough time topping...

#1 "SCENARIO" (The Low End Theory, Jive, 1991).  If Busta Rhymes had one of the most memorable closing verses on a posse cut, then Phife Dawg needs to be mentioned as having one of the illest openings.  Don't get me wrong: everybody shined on "Scenario"--which is easily one of my favorite hip-hop songs of all time as well as one of my favorite "crew love" jams.  As much as I danced back and forth which one was my absolute favorite between this verse and "Award Tour", I had to catapult this to No. 1 because 1) it brings back good memories of being in the seventh grade, watching Yo! MTV Raps in our basement and seeing this video for the first time; and 2) it's just that friggin' dope.  In fact, his verse alone may have cemented my love and respect for ATCQ, so again, I gotta lay out the entire verse:

Heyo, Bo knows this, (What?) and Bo knows that (What?)/But Bo don't know jack, 'cause Bo can't rap/Well what do you know, the Di-Dawg is first up to bat/No batteries included and no strings attached/No holds barred, no time for move fakin'/Gots to get the loot so I can bring home the bacon/Brothers front, they say the Tribe can't flow/But we've been known to do the impossible like Broadway Joe, so/Sleep if you want, NyQuil will help you get your Z's troop/But here's the real scoop/I'm all that and then some, short, dark and handsome/Bust a nut inside your eye to show you where I come from/I'm vexed, fuming, I've had it up to here/My days of paying dues are over, acknowledge as in there (Yeah!)/Head for the border, go get a taco/Watch me wreck it from the jump street, meaning from the get-go/Sit back, relax and let yourself go/Don't sweat what you heard, but act like you know...

As I'm sitting here and reading this verse bar-for-bar, it's hard to convince me that he didn't have the best verse on the entire song.  If you didn't know who Phife Dawg was from a can of paint before this point, then this was arguably his coming out party.  Besides, anybody that can go from wearing a Georgia Tech hat to a curly wig and keep a fairly straight face while rapping is clearly in the zone lyrically.


Until having to sit down and listen to Phife Dawg more closely, I totally slept on how awesome he was.  Don't get me wrong, it's not like I ever thought he was wack, but I always preferred Q-Tip a little more as an overall artist.  However, A Tribe Called Quest wouldn't be heralded in the annals of hip-hop culture if not for the Five Foot Assassin's timeless contributions of potent rhymes to the hip-hop narrative.  While he may be physically gone, his spirit lives on through the hours upon hours upon hours of dope music that he left behind.  Along with Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White, he helped raise me and a legion of other hip-hop lovers all across the world during arguably the greatest period in hip-hop history.  Rest in Peace, Paradise and Beats Phife Dawg...

If you are an avid Tribe Called Quest fan, a hip-hop cultural aficionado or a music lover in general, please feel free to drop some of your favorite Phife Dawg lines and help pay tribute to one of hip-hop's pioneers.