Phife Dawg Forever
Music, Sounds

Phife Dawg, Forever: REVIEW

by Darcy MacDonald

“Forever lives up both to its name and to the late legend’s legacy as a bona fide hip hop icon.”

Phife Dawg, Forever (Smokin’ Needles) 

The long-awaited second studio full-length from A Tribe Called Quest’s five-foot assassin finally landed in late March, on the sixth anniversary of his sudden, untimely passing. Completed with careful consideration and judiciousness by his longtime DJ and musical partner Rasta Root, Forever is a welcome and worthy exercise in timelessness. A large part of Phife Dawg’s talent was an ability to lace ordinary situations with descriptive hip hop swagger and make being a regular person sound cool — the tough and even mundane parts included. Plus, he had some of the most memorable punchlines in genre history. Those gifts are both front and centre on an album that comes complete and confident without over-relying on its numerous guests (Q-Tip, Posdnuos, Busta, Redman and Rapsody among them) and without becoming mired in the past. Because Phife rapped truthfully about everyday joys and struggles, Forever lives up both to its name and to the late legend’s legacy as a bona fide hip hop icon. 8/10 Trial Track: “Only a Coward”

“Only a Coward” from the latest posthumous Phife Dawg album Forever

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Posted in Music, Sounds

by Darcy MacDonald

Contributor
Darcy MacDonald has been with Cult MTL since day one, a decade ago. Which means today, he’s a middle-aged white guy (albeit one more interested in other people’s ideas than in his own). He was previously a columnist and reporter for Montreal Mirror, and has also created content (FKA “written”) for RBMA, Noisey, Montreal Gazette, The National Post and probably some other great places he’s forgotten about. Music, culture, community and miscellaneous questions in search of answers all come across his desk, sooner or later.