A Posthumous Phife Dawg Solo Album to Release Next Year

[gallery columns="3"][gallery columns="3"]Following the release of A Tribe Called Quest’s final album earlier this month, it appears we maybe getting an encore. Over the weekend, the late Tribe co-founder, Phife Dawg was honored in the Saint Albans neighborhood of Queens where the street he grew up on was renamed to “Malik ‘Phife Dawg’ Way.” During the ceremony, thousands showed up to pay their respect to the fallen emcee who passed away earlier this year after battling Diabetes. His wife, Desha Head Taylor, who was also in attendance, spoke to Okayplayer about her husband’s legacy. That was when she would reveal that her late husband finished recording an entire solo album prior to his death:

“His solo album will be out probably sometime during the first quarter of 2017. We’re working on it now,” she said. “He completed his entire solo album before he transitioned, so we’re excited about releasing that.” The record will serve as the official follow-up to his 2000 solo debut Ventilaton: Da LP, which was teased with “Nutshell,” a fly solo cut produced by J Dilla. The cut was scheduled to appear on the album, which was to be titled Give Thanks.

His wife also shared some fond memories of Phife during the We Got It From Here sessions:

“There were times where he was working on the album where he would send me video footage of him rhyming over some of the beats that you would hear on the album,” she said. “He would make a certain face when hearing the beat, he would make this frown like ‘I’m feeling this,’ and you would hear his verses in the back. He was really excited about this project.”

Stream ATCQ’s We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service album here.