On this day three years ago, March 22nd 2015, a lethal combination of diabetic complications and kidney failure took the life of Malik Izaak Taylor, better known by his stage name Phife Dawg, a founding member of New York City rap group “A Tribe Called Quest‰” and without a doubt one of the most influential MC‰’s in East Coast hip-hop.

As a lover of all things R&B, I cannot stress the importance of A Tribe Called Quest as a collective. If there was ever a more potent pairing in hip-hop than Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, I’m hard-pressed to name it. Two emcees with an endless flow and better rhymes than arguably any rapper before and since their time, Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and the rest of A Tribe Called Quest were instrumental in the jazz rap renaissance of the 80s and early 90s. Without Tribe, there’s no Fugees. De La Soul wouldn’t have the same name recognition (considering both acts were integral to the Native Tongues Posse.) Even Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly and Kanye West‰’s The College Dropout wouldn‰’t extend to their full potential without tracks like “Jazz (We’ve Got)” or “Vibes And Stuff.”

A Tribe Called Quest never quite had the commercial impact of some their contemporaries but they made it up in sheer influence on some of the most critically acclaimed rap acts of the last twenty years. A career spanning through three decades, A Tribe Called Quest was put on the map with their enigmatic 1991 debut The Low-End Theory, and punctuated their reign over 90‰’s hip-hop with the pan-African flight of 1993‰’s Midnight Marauders, anti-commercialism commentary in 1996‰’s Beats, Rhymes & Life, and a yearning sadness on 1998‰’s The Love Movement. An emphasis on social issues, humor, and a constant need to one-up each other on the mic, Tribe represented one of the peaks of lyrically and instrumentally driven hip-hop, and it’s impossible to imagine that sound without Phife Dawg’s baritone flow. On standout 1991 single “Scenario‰Û, Phife “steps up to bat‰” with a playful opening rhyme “I’m all that and then some, short, dark, and handsome/ Bust a nut inside your eye to show you where I come from.‰Û

In 2016, 18 years after their last record The Love Movement was released, the Brooklyn collective consisting of Phife, Q-Tip, DJ Ali, and frequent guest-collaborators Busta Rhymes and Consequence returned for one last record, We Got It From Here…Thank You For Your Service. Against many odds, the album reinvigorated the group‰’s enviable discography without resting on the nostalgia of past accomplishment. The record not only re-emphasized the lyrical fundamentals Tribe carved into hip-hop so long ago, it also serves as a dedication to the late Phife Dawg who passed just after recording his final verses. Closing track “The Donald‰” in its entirety is a tribute to Phife Dawg‰’s legacy, featuring one last verse from ‰The Don Juan‰’ himself, which encompasses his signature spitfire rhyme, humorous tone, and bitter societal outlook. “Phife Dawg, you can call me Don Juice/ I‰’m the shit right now, what, you need proof?‰” Even after death, Phife still rocks the mic hard, and will continue to do so in the ears and minds of hip-hop aficionados for a long time coming.