Busta was there from, if not the first one, then the trip after, which was a week later. Because I remember I told him how incredible the show was and how he pulled that shyt together.
He was there for a lot of the sessions, and in true Busta form, just by being there, his presence is so overwhelming you have no choice but to give him headphones and let him sit in front of a mic. He said, ‘I’m not leaving without being on one of these records. And he wasn’t lying!’ [laughs]
This Album Did Not Kill, Phife Dawg… It Gave Him New Life
Deisha Taylor [In response to Touré’s New York Times piece, which quotes Jarobi, saying of Phife: “Doing this album killed him”]:
“Naw. I don’t agree with that. Because there were times when Malik was traveling with Rock The Bells with the group… they were traveling every other weekend and he was doing dialysis during the week. [There were other] periods when he could have been stressed out as well. Of course there were times when he was tired or exhausted, but that was normal. To travel, then do dialysis. But that was his normal day-to-day, whether he was there or here at home.
He was perfectly fine, before this happened again. It was really untimely, he had not been hospitalized, he had not been hospitalized in years. He hadn’t been going back and forth to the doctor for anything. He was just doing his day to day, which included dialysis three days a week. He was in good condition. He was fine, health-wise.”
Rasta Root:
“I don’t know if that was taken out of context, but just being that I was with him all those times and setting up his clinic visits and all that, Phife was most comfortable onstage, most comfortable around his friends. It kinda invigorated him. Traveling as much as he did, yes, it wore him down but it honestly gave him life to be out there recording and doing what he had to do as a soloist.
His transition is completely unrelated to him being in Jersey, in my opinion. Because he would fly a few hours, have a day break, and then we would go to the house record, go to the clinic. The clinic was right down the street from the hotel. The hotel was maybe 10, 15 minutes from Tip’s house. It wasn’t strenuous. If anything, he was living for himself and he was excited.
We would come back from the studio at three in the morning to the hotel and he’d be in my room, hanging out, talking and I would have to tell him, ‘Phife, go to your bed. You, got to get up in a few hours for dialysis.’ He had so much energy, I couldn’t keep up. Literally, at times, I told his mom, who is this person? He’s typically either up watching sports or sleeping, but being out there he was full of energy, positive.
...may still get the Physical Copy this Week.
