While the legendary five-foot assassin tragically passed away in March this year, his legacy is certainly sticking around for a lot longer. While many succumbed to the thought of never hearing new Tribe again, low and behold, A Tribe Called Quest came through with an incredible new record just weeks ago, composed entirely in secrecy, and shocking the world. Now for fans, there is even better news, Phife Dawg’s widow says that he has an entire album ready for release.
During a press conference held before the momentous co-naming of Linden Boulevard to Malik ‘Phife Dawg’ Way, Desha Head Taylor, revealed that there is in fact new material on its way, and it’s not far away at all. “His solo album will be out probably sometime during the first quarter of 2017. He completed his entire solo album before he transitioned, so we’re excited about releasing that.”
Taylor then went on to speak about his enthusiasm for Tribe’s latest album, We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, saying “he was really excited about this project”, explaining times she was luckily enough to have glimpses into the work, “he would make a certain face when hearing the beat, he would make a frown like ‘I’m feeling this'”.
The upcoming solo album, which in it’s early stages was to be titled Give Thanks, will serve as the highly anticipated and follow-up to his 2000 solo debut, Ventilaton: Da LP. First teased with his J Dilla produced gem Nutshell, it was a bold first taste of what’s to come.
Phife’s debut boasted production from not only Jay Dee, but Hi-Tek, Pete Rock and more, and A Tribe Called Quest’s latest record featured the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000 and Anderson .Paak to name just a few, so who knows what kind of heavyweight collaborations may be lurking amongst the tracklist of Phife’s last album.
One thing is for certain, we can’t wait to find out!
Image: Okayplayer