Watch A Tribe Called Quest pay tribute to Phife Dawg on 'Saturday Night Live'

Culture

A Tribe Called Quest used their debut performance on the Nov. 12, 2016 edition of Saturday Night Live to pay tribute to late band member Phife Dawg, who perished in March this year of complications relating to diabetes. 

Producer-DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad first backed MCs Q-Tip and Jarobi White for a rendition of "We the People," an anti-racist song from their new album We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, and unfurled a banner of Phife in the background. The group was later joined on stage by frequent collaborators Busta Rhymes and Consequence for a performance of "The Space Program," another track from the album.

We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, the first A Tribe Called Quest album in 18 years, dropped on Friday. As the New York Times noted, the album's production process saw Q-Tip and Phife healing their adversarial relationship, with Q-Tip telling the paper "I had no idea that his days was numbered. I just want to celebrate him, y'know?"