Pioneering Queens hip-hop collective A Tribe Called Quest just gave fans something to look forward to in the new year. Despite being officially disbanded following the death of group founding member Phife Dawg in 2016 and the group’s final outing that same year, Tribe’s social media has remained active, giving updates on merch and special announcements. Today, it offered up both in the form of a tweet honoring Phife’s 50th birthday.
“To honor and celebrate his life and legacy, the estate on behalf of his family just released limited-edition ‘Phife Forever’ tees,” the tweet announced before following up with the real kicker. “Also know that early next year you will all get to hear a new Phife album.” That’s truly impressive news considering his last full-length release came out over 20 years ago in 2000. Ventilation: Da LP received mixed reviews at the time — mainly, I think — because it was not the Tribe reunion album fans hankered for. It reached 175 on the Billboard 200 (by way of comparison, Q-Tip’s solo album Amplified from the year before debuted at No. 28 and spawned the Hot 100 hits “Breathe And Stop” and “Vivrant Thing”).
Happy 50th Phife Dawg!
To honor and celebrate his life and legacy, the estate on behalf of his family just released limited edition "Phife Forever" tees. You can pre-order until 12/1 ? in the bio
Also know that early next year you will all get to hear a new Phife album ? pic.twitter.com/BfXTb11Oq5
— ATCQ (@ATCQ) November 20, 2020
Interestingly, Phife’s widow Desha Head Taylor had previously teased the album to drop in 2017, but with no new announcements since, it seemed we’d heard the last of Phife Dawg on the Tribe farewell album We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service. Now, it looks like we can expect a new collection soon.