Sunday, March 4, 2018

Phife Dawg Speaks Out against Sugar Addition before Dying of Diabetes


Dr. Kenneth “Ken” Mwatha is an experienced emergency physician who holds a doctor of medicine from Johns Hopkins University. For the past five years, he has treated patients in the emergency room of a hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Outside of work, Dr. Ken Mwatha enjoys listening to the music of the classic rap group A Tribe Called Quest.

One of the two MCs in A Tribe Called Quest, Phife Dawg (born Malik Taylor), passed away from diabetic complications in March of 2016. His death came after a lengthy struggle with diabetes that was complicated by what he recognized as a powerful addiction to sugar. 

As a result of his serious diabetic condition, Phife Dawg underwent a kidney transplant in 2008. Three years later he referred to his continuing addiction to sugar as a “sickness” and equated sugar with harder drugs in a 2011 documentary about the band. He admitted that his dependency on sugar caused him to live in a state of denial about his diabetes.