You may have heard that Phife from A Tribe Called Quest passed away this week, after a long struggle with diabetes. He was only 45.
As I posted on Facebook, the Hip Hop acts I still care about in 2016 are significantly few and far between, but I was always a fan of A Tribe Called Quest, and saddened by this news, as – to my mind – Phife had one of the most distinctive voices in the genre. It’s a yarn I’ve spun here many times, but I got to see the band perform at a private staff party at SPIN in 1989 (when I was an intern there). I remember thinking they were fun and entertaining, but none of us knew they were going to be such a pivotal act, arguably the most enduring branch of the whole Native Tongue movement (alongside De La Soul, the Jungle Brothers, Monie Love, etc.)
In any case, apart from regularly extolling the merits of the Beastie Boys, I don’t post a lot of Hip Hop stuff here (the last full scale post on same was a decade ago). In terms of contemporary Hip Hop, I can’t say I really comprehend – let alone enjoy -- that much of it. I think Kanye West is fatuously objectionable, ridiculous and entirely overrated. Tyler, the Creator just strikes me as yawnsomely juvenile and I have absolutely zero interest in Drake or anything he might have to say. What little of Kendrick Lamarr I’ve heard intrigues me. He I should probably investigate further.
But it’s also seemingly been a million years since I heard a Hip Hop track that packed that same immediacy one used to hear in the music of Public Enemy or the Wu-Tang Clan or, indeed, A Tribe Called Quest. It also strikes me that, with the exception of the afore-cited Kendrick Lamarr, the majority of contemporary Hip Hop doesn’t have quite as much to say. I’m probably not looking hard enough for the good stuff, though.
But – I should shut up, as I ultimately don’t know what I’m talking about. Hip Hop is still a dominant cultural force and invariably still in its infancy, so we’ll see where it’s headed. In the short term, however, the loss of Phife from A Tribe Called Quest is a huge one. His band was one of the first truly original Hip Hop acts I remember hearing – totally dispensing with cliché, and lyrically exploring themes and subjects that were light-years ahead of their contemporaries. Their first two album (Peoples Instinctive Travels.. and Low-End Theory) are entirely magnificent pieces of music that transcend genre. Go get them.
The track below, meanwhile, is from the band’s third album, Midnight Marauders. I wasn’t as wild about this effort, but I’m selecting this clip, as it’s a loving portrait of NYC in the mid-90’s. It also features some great footage of Tribeca’s Square Diner, which – refreshingly – is still there, and still serving exemplary burgers.
Pour one out for Phife.
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