On Wednesday morning (Feb. 2), the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced the nominees for the class of 2022, which included a bevy of musical luminaries, including Rage Against the Machine, Beck, Lionel Richie, and Dolly Parton. This year, hip-hop squeezed its way in again with a pair of selections, including Eminem and renowned ’90s rap group A Tribe Called Quest, after watching Jay-Z and LL Cool J receive their honors last year.

Tribe’s frontman and lauded producer Q-Tip spoke on the bittersweet moment and how he wished former member Phife Dawg, who passed in 2016, was here to relish the feat. “I was pleased, [but], I wish my man [Phife Dawg] was here,” he says during his chat with Billboard on Thursday afternoon.

The lyrical quartet surged onto the hip-hop landscape when they released their 1991 opus, The Low End Theory. They followed that with equally-seminal albums, including 1993’s Beats, Rhymes and Life and 1996’s Midnight Marauders. Then, in 2016, following the passing of Phife Dawg, the group released their sixth and final studio album, We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and enjoyed ubiquitous acclaim.

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