SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Bay Area-based producer Starita has always dreamt of collaborating with A Tribe Called Quest. While working at a record store in Jackson, Mississippi, he stumbled across 1993’s Midnight Marauders and thought to himself, “Oh my god, this is it.” From there, the flood gates opened and he dove head first into Hip Hop.
In 1996, he decided to attend engineering school to learn how to produce music, which eventually led the Grammy Award-winning producer to Berkeley’s Fantasy Studios 10 years later.
Holed up at the production board, he sat with Phife Dawg working on ATCQ’s final album, We got it from Here … Thank You For Your service. They wrapped up work on “Dis Generation” on Sunday (March 20).
Phife would pass away two days later on March 22, 2016. According to Starita, Phife almost had a sixth sense that his time on earth was soon coming to an end.
In a green room upstairs at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco during the Tribute To A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders event last month, Starita recalls those last days.