The hip hop world was shocked when A Tribe Called Quest's Phife Dawg passed away suddenly earlier this year. Yesterday, the band announced that they had recorded a secret, sixth and final album with Phife Dawg before his death.
Phife Dawg was one of the founding members of A Tribe Called Quest, one of the most influential alternative hip hop groups of all time. He passed away earlier this year due to complications from diabetes at the age of 45, shocking many in the music industry. NYC recently honored the late rapper by naming a street after him.
Many assumed that Phife Dawg's passing meant the end of A Tribe Called Quest, but LA Reed, the CEO of Epic Records, recently revealed that the band had recorded a sixth, secret album before Phife Dawg's death. "You know what I’m excited about though? A Tribe Called Quest. [Epic Records] has A Tribe Called Quest album coming... It’s an album that [the members] recorded before Phife [Dawg] passed away. I’m really happy about it, man. It’s really something special. It’s one of the things I’m most excited about out of everything we’re working on,” Reed said on the Rap Radar podcast.
The new, currently unnamed album will be the first studio album from A Tribe Called Quest in 16 years.
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com
