After A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg passed in March, the late rapper’s manager announced back in August that Linden Blvd and 192nd St. in Queens, New York would be renamed Malik “Phife Dawg” Taylor Way. As Councilman I. Daneek Miller told The Daily News back in August, this will ensure the group will inspire for generations:
“Malik Taylor and the members of A Tribe Called Quest helped to bring hip-hop into the mainstream and used their talent to reach heights they themselves never thought possible. But in this time, they never forgot where they came from, inspiring others from Southeast Queens,”
As it turns out, the site of A Tribe Called Quest’s classic “Check the Rhime” video was actually renamed after the rap group itself. In conjunction with the great honor, a mural was painted on the site of Nu Clear Dry Cleaners on July 2. The video above was released depicting the process behind the mural and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Tribe’s seminal The Low End Theory. Set to Phife Dawg’s “Nutshell,” the short documentary also interviews a few people involved with the project.
“Culturally, these are hip-hop hieroglyphics,” said Theron Smith, co-organizer. “This is something to remind people that history happened here. Essentially this is a pilgrimage. If you want to understand A Tribe Called Quest, you should come down here at some point and see what happened.”
“Not only do I have to represent, I gotta represent, represent. Two times,” added Vince Ballentine, the mural artist. “It’s a dedication to a group that was pivotal when it comes to hip-hop history is, to what my history is.”
Watch the video about the mural above and check out A Tribe Called Quest’s video for “Check the Rhime” below.
