Doors 7pm

Tickets £16.50 adv

PHIFE DAWG (Tribe Called Quest)

+ support from CHIP FU (Fu-Schnickens)

Malik Taylor aka Phife Dawg, is one third of the dynamic trio the world grew to love called A Tribe Called Quest. ATCQ was one of the first hip hop groups in the 90s to achieve worldwide success with their classic punch-line rhymes and jazzy drum heavy beats and loops. They became role models to a group of would be mcs who would go on to form groups like The Roots, The Fugees, Slum Village, and many others. Seminal albums such as Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders marked Tribe’s territory as a musical phenomenon. Q-tip played the nasal-flowed mc who made girls have a thing for him. Ali Shaheed held down the sounds for the group on stage. Phife, Phifey, or the Five-Footer was the battle hungry mc who had the wittiest punch-lines, an uncanny knowledge of sports, and had no shame in letting you know he was short, dark, raspy voiced and would take your crown. Together they wrote the score for a generation of hip hoppers who were not impressed with platinum chains and huge rims, but with your skills on the mic and on the production boards. All this defined A Tribe Called Quest.

In 2000, Phife linked up with producer/dj Rasta Root to form Smokin’ Needles Records and Riddim Kidz production company. Both the label and the production company would become home to talented artists Slick & Rose, Jax, and of course Phife’s new material.