Rapper Phife Dawg Dead: Rapper from A Tribe Called Quest Dies at 45

Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest died at 45 years old on Tuesday Night. 

Yet there is no confirmed cause of death, it is suspected that his passing was from health complications Phife, born as Malik Taylor, had been well knowingly suffering from health issues, especially diabetes. Since 2008, the rapper had received a kidney transplant caused by his battle with his diabetes. 

"It's really a sickness," Taylor said in "Beats, Rhymes & Life," a documentary on the rapper group. "Like straight-up drugs. I'm just addicted to sugar." 

Taylor co-founded the rapper group with his high school classmates Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad from Queens, NY in the mid-1980s.

Throughout the 1990s the group made 5 albums. Phife appeared on all of them. Since their last album, the trio has reunited multiple times, making their last live show on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in November. They performed their popular classic, "Can I Kick It?"

Friends and fans of the rapper took to social media to express their condolences and sympathy for his surprising death. 

Russel Simmons tweeted, "Damn. #RIPPhife one of the greatest to bless the mic." While Marlyn Wayans posted an Instagram photo of the rapper and captioned it, "Phife didawg... #RIP fam love you brother. You left the world with jewels man."