Malik Izaak Taylor, was born on 20 November 1970, in Queens, New York City USA, of Trinidadian descent, and under his stage name Phife Dawg, or simply Phife, he was known as a rapper, and a member of the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest.
A talented rapper, how rich was Phife Dawg? According to sources in late 2016, Phife had acquired a net worth over $5 million, his wealth having been established through his involvement in the music industry from 1985 until his passing in 2016.
Phife Dawg Net Worth $5 Million
During his high-school days, Phife formed a group called A Tribe Called Quest, along with his friends Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed and Jarobi White, starting their musical journey in 1985. After signing with Jive Records in 1989, their debut album, “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm”, came out the following year, eventually receiving critical acclaim and being certified gold. A year later, their second album “The Low End Theory” was released, containing three hit singles, “Check the Rhime,” “Jazz (We’ve Got),” and “Scenario”, which collected a wide circle of fans. The album saw incredible success, eventually earning a spot on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Phife’s popularuty was boosted and his net worth started to rise.
By the end of the ’90s, the band had released three more albums, “Midnight Marauders”, “Beats, Rhymes and Life” and “The Love Movement”, receiving several Grammy nominations for Best Rap Album and reinforcing their popuarity among worldwide audiences; all added to Phife’s wealth.
In 1998 A Tribe Called Quest disbanded, due to their conflicts both with the record label and between the members themselves, which was portrayed in the 2011 documentary “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest”. They reunited in 2004, and in fact in the years since, the group has disbanded and reunited several times, performing at various festivals, events and concerts and touring across the USA.
In the meantime, Phife pursued a solo career, releasing his debut solo album, “Ventilation: Da LP” in 2000, under Groove Attack Records. H also collaborated and performed with other artists, such as Fu-Schnickens and Diamond D. Reportedly, he began working on his second solo album, which was never released. His last single, “Nutshell”, came out in 2015.
A huge fan of sports, especially basketball, Phife was featured on a number of ESPN radio shows and sports programs. He also wrote a sports column on SpitKicker.com entitled “Only From The Mind of the Phifer”. In addition, he was featured in the video game NBA 2K7 and 2K9.
The rapper was also involved in the film industry. He played Gerald in the 1993 film “Who’s the Man?” and provided his voice for the 1998 film “The Rugrats Movie”.
Speaking about his private life, Phife was married to Deisha Head Taylor, with whom he had one child, and with whom he remained until his death. Phife had been suffering from diabetes since 1990. In 2008 he received a kidney transplant from his wife, unfortunatelly unsuccessfully. He died in early 2016, of complications relating to diabetes, being aged just 45.
