A Tribe Called Quest Speaks Out Following Phife Dawg's Death

As the Hip Hop community, and fans mourn the loss of A Tribe Called Quest's founding member Phife Dawg, the remaining group members have finally released a statement and claimed that Dawg's sudden death took them by surprise.

 We love and miss you

A photo posted by ATCQ (@atcq) on Mar 23, 2016 at 4:37pm PDT

In the statement seen below, the other members of the group -- Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Jarobi White -- said:

"Our hearts are heavy. We are devastated. This is something we weren’t prepared for although we all know that life is fleeting. It was no secret about his health and his fight. But the fight for his joy and happiness gave him everything he needed. The fight to keep his family happy, his soul happy and those around him happy, gave him complete and unadulterated joy… until he heeded his fathers call."

A photo posted by Oleksii Potapenko (@realpotap) on Mar 24, 2016 at 6:43pm PDT

The statement continued, "We love his family his mother, his father, his son, his wife, his nieces, his family here in New York, Atlanta, California and Trinidad."

The group thanked everyone for their support and prayers and revealed that Dawg's family were grateful for their outpouring care. "Thank you for the outpouring of prayers and support from the fans, fellow artists, music outlets, blogs, radio stations, DJ’s, social media and the music community at large. This too is part of his joy and means a lot to him. His family is overwhelmed by the support, well wishes and are thankful."

The statement claimed that Dawg wasn't in pain during his time of death, and claimed that he was happy before he died. The family and group have asked for privacy during this difficult time.

Dawg, whose real name was Malik Taylor, died Tuesday, March 22 at the age of 45 due to complications from diabetes.

The group was a hit in the '90s. MStars News wanted to take our readers back to one of our favorite songs by the group, "Electric Relaxation."

RIP Phife Dawg.