Phife Dawg’s estate has just released his long-awaited posthumous album, Forever, which was finally released earlier this month. His death was six years ago today, so the project was released on Mar. 22 via AWAL, which happened to be his birthday.
There are 13 tracks on the album, and a long list of collaborators is included, including POS, Rapsody, Redman, Q-Tip, Lyric Jones, Busta Rhymes, Renée Neufville, Little Brother, and plenty others. On the creative side, the boards were overseen by Winbush, 9th Wonder, J Dilla, Angela and more. On Wednesday (Mar. 31), the title track for the project’s debut project was officially released. Photos and videos accompany the video, which also shares handwritten illustrations of the late rapper’s lyrics:
Video director Tony Reames described the tribute as, “When I heard ‘Forever,’ I wasn’t prepared for how profound and honest it is. It took me a while to process all of it.” DJ Rasta Root came up with the idea of featuring personal photos and videos that go along with the message. All the lyrics are written by Phife himself, we scanned a lot of his manuscripts in to create a typeface that looks like Phife told the story himself. “I am forever grateful for the opportunity to be around Phife and his family, as well as everyone we met along the way.”
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