A Tribe Called Quest’s first tour in six years is just ahead. They recorded a new song, “I C U Doin’ It,” in 2004 for a Violator comp., but it never left the shelf. Even with these, principal member Phife Dawg admits that this may not equal a reunion.

With the passage of time, Phife is thankful for the references to Tribe’s importance in hip-hop history.

“The rap game is so fickle,” he says. “We could have been forgotten and left for dead a long time ago, especially since we haven’t done anything since 1998. For people to still crave seeing us, that’s a blessing. I really think we’re doing ourselves, as well as the fans, an injustice by not handling our business. It’s not going to be like that forever, and we need to take full advantage.”

Phife has recently begun work on Songs In The Key Of Phife, Vol. 1: Cheryl’s Big Son where he hopes for collaborations with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003052735