Run the Jewels paid tribute to the late Phife Dawg in a very special way on their Beats 1 show, WRTJ. Members Killer Mike and El-P spoke highly of the iconic rapper, using the show to praise his immense contributions to music. "Everybody loves that dude," El-P said, explaining the significant impact A Tribe Called Quest's album, The Low End Theory, had in getting him through a strange time in his life after he had been kicked out of high school. "Everybody knows what he's done for music; everybody grew up feeling like this guy was someone you wanted to know, and that he represented something for us that was even sort of innocent, in a way. So I'd just like to say—and I'm sorry we're taking this somber moment here but somber moments are deserved sometimes—I'd just like to say thank you Phife for inspiring me."
Killer Mike shared a story about cutting school to see A Tribe Called Quest perform at Emory University and praised Phife as an influence in his own music. "You will live forever in our rhymes," he said. "He is, not was, but is a constant inspiration to me, on just how to be a cool motherfucker and drop dope-ass rhymes and how to be the best presentation of what a group of people who don't rap with each others' style should be." Listen to Run the Jewels' full tribute to Phife below.
