Dave Chappelle inducted A Tribe Called Quest into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday (October 19) at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland.
After commending Tribe on 1991’s album Low End Theory, Chappelle looked back on March 22, 2016, the night Phife Dawg passed away. He recalled he had tickets to a Prince concert but immediately ditched his plans to head to The Apollo for an impromptu memorial.
Along with Phife’s fellow Tribe members, several of their fellow Native Tongues headed to Q-Tip’s house, where they listened to old songs, watched old movies and did their best to share some laughs. Finally, Q-Tip played the last song Phife was on, which happened to be “Thank You For Service…We Got it From Here.”
“What you’ve done for our culture changed our lives,” Chappelle said. “But what you did for me changed my life. You invited me on to Saturday Night Live and it brought me back to television after 12 years in the cold.”
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When it was time for A Tribe Called Quest to accept the award, Jarobi grabbed the mic and reflected on his journey with Tribe. Q-Tip, standing there stoically, then stepped up to podium. As he thanked his family, he brought up Phife and tears quickly flooded his eyes.
“Rest in peace to our brother Phife Dawg,” he said. “I wish you were here.”
Phife Dawg’s father, Walt Taylor, finished up the speeches, reminding the crowd “Phife is all about family. We are here to support A Tribe Called Quest and to support Phife Dawg.” He sewed up his commentary with, “Cher, I got you babe.”
The Tribe segment concluded with an explosive performance boasting appearances by Queen Latifah, who performed “Can I Kick It?,” Pos and Black Thought joining her for “Check the Rime,” Common on “Bonita Applebum” and Busta Rhymes on, of course, “Scenario,” which introduced Bus-A-Bus to the rest of the world.
In fact, Busta Rhymes noted at the end of the performance, “Y’all gave birth to me, Tribe!” Watch a clip above.