Phife Dawg, from the rap group A Tribe Called Quest, has passed away.

The beloved and clever rapper, whose real name is Malik Taylor, died on Wednesday at the age of 45. The cause of death has not yet been confirmed, but Taylor had health issues for years. After battling Type 1 diabetes for a long time, he underwent a kidney transplant in 2008 thanks to a donation from his wife.

"It's really a sickness," he said in 2011. "Like straight-up drugs. I'm just addicted to sugar."

Taylor had even labeled himself "the Funky Diabetic" in several of A Tribe Called Quest's songs. He eventually became a diabetes advocate and shared his personal story in the 2012 documentary "Beats, Rhymes and Life."

Phife Dawg formed A Tribe Called Quest in the late 1980's along with Q-Tip, whose real name is Jonathan Davis, DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White, who eventually left the group at the height of their success. Quest went on to sign to Jive Records and release five studio albums.

Their first album, "People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm," was released in 1990. After they put out the first album, the following four were extremely successful. The 1996 album "Beats, Rhymes and Life" was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 while its follow-up "The Love Movement" was No. 3 on the chart. In 2005, the rap group was awarded with a Special Achievement Award at the Billboard R&B Hip-Hop Awards.

Phife even released a solo album in 2000 called "Ventilation: Da LP" following the group's break up in 1998. Even though they are no longer an official rap group, they have reunited for several shows over the years, including a recent performance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

When the tragic news of his death was made public, several rappers and friends took to social media to remember the great rapper and share their condolences:

 Phife forever 1970-2016. 1991 in Sept I went to visit Tariq at Millersville U in the middle of PA (Lancaster). Miles Davis had just passed & I went on a binge to study his post jazz works. Went to Sound Of Market to purchase Nefertiti, In A Silent Way & Live Evil---the only non jazz purchase I made that day ironically was the most jazziest album in that collection: #TheLowEndTheory by @ATCQ. ---it was raining that day so somehow the 1...2 punch of "Nefertiti"/"Fall" just had me in a trance that train trip---even though I suspected there was a possibility that Tribe could possibly have made a better album then their debut (the perfect @@@@@ mic Source rating would be on stands in a week so I was right)---but I knew I wanted to save that listening for when I got up to the campus w Riq.---so some 90mins later when I get to his dorm--we ripped that bad boy open (I can't describe the frustration that was CD packaging in 1991, just imagine the anger that environmentalists feel when all that paper packaging in Beats headphone gets wasted---it's like that)---the sign of a true classic is when a life memory is burnt in your head because of the first time you hear a song. ---Riq & I had this moment a few times, but the look on our faces when we 1st heard "Buggin Out" was prolly Me & Tariq's greatest "rewind selector!" moment in our friendship. (Back then every MC's goal was to have that "rewind!!!" moment. As in to say something so incredible. Or to catch you by surprise that it makes you go "DAAAAAYUM!!!"& you listen over & over---Malik "Phife" Taylor's verse was such a gauntlet/flag planting moment in hip hop. Every hip hop head was just...stunned HE. CAME. FOR. BLOOD & was taking NO prisoners on this album (or ever again) we just kept looking at the speaker on some disbelief old timey radio Suspense episode. & also at each other "Phife is KILLIN!"--by the time we got to "Scenario" I swear to god THAT was the moment I knew I wanted to make THIS type of music when I grew up--(yeah yeah dad I know: "go to Juilliard or Curtis to make a nice living at "real music") but he didn't know that Phife & his crew already wrote my destiny. I ain't look back since. THANK YOU PHIFE!

A photo posted by Questlove Gomez (@questlove) on Mar 23, 2016 at 1:49am PDT

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