NEW YORK — Malik Taylor, the wry and agile rapper known as Phife Dawg who as a member of A Tribe Called Quest brought left-of-center hip-hop to the masses, died on Tuesday at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was 45.

Mr. Taylor’s family and his manager, Dion Liverpool, confirmed the death and said the cause was complications from diabetes.

Mr. Taylor learned he had diabetes in 1990 — “When was the last time you heard a funky diabetic?’’ he once rapped — and received a kidney transplant in 2008. His health problems and self-proclaimed sugar addiction were a point of tension in the 2011 documentary “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest,’’ which followed the group during a reunion tour.

A Tribe Called Quest formed in New York in 1985, when Mr. Taylor was 15, and it released five albums, including the jazz-sampling rap classics “The Low End Theory’’ and “Midnight Marauders,’’ before disbanding for the first time in 1998. With hits such as “Scenario,’’ “Can I Kick It?’’ and “Bonita Applebum,’’ the group sold millions of albums while also serving as a more socially conscious and overtly political alternative to the gangster rap and pop rhymers of the day.

On recordings, the proudly diminutive Phife Dawg played a more frenetic and high-pitched counterpart to his childhood friend Q-Tip (Jonathan Davis), A Tribe Called Quest’s lead emcee. (The group also included the DJ and producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad and, occasionally, the rapper Jarobi White.)

This pair’s repartee would serve as the most obvious example of Tribe’s magnetic, brotherly bond, a chemistry that was palpable on record. “You on point, Phife?’’ Q-Tip volleyed on “Check the Rhime.’’

“All the time, Tip,’’ Phife Dawg replied.

“We bounce off of each other like yin and yang, nice and smooth, you know?’’ Mr. Taylor said of the partnership in an interview last year, as A Tribe Called Quest marked the 25th anniversary of its debut album, “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.’’

Mr. Taylor added that he never expected the group to be so successful: “I just thought we were going to be celebs in the hood.’’

Malik I. Taylor was born in Queens and would refer frequently to his home base, Linden Boulevard and 192nd Street. After meeting Davis as a child in church, they began experimenting with music as protégés of the local Native Tongues Posse.

In a recent post on Reddit, Mr. Taylor said of making music: “We were happy to be doing something to keep ourselves out of trouble. Eventually we were able to take care of our families. We were happy.’’

After a decade together, the duo split up after the release of its fifth album, “The Love Movement.’’ A review in The New York Times by Ben Ratliff of its last concert together at the time said the group produced “music that a fan could grow up with a bit rather than discarding after adolescence.’’

In 2000, Phife Dawg released his only solo album, “Ventilation: Da LP’’; before his death, he had announced plans for further releases, even teasing online a new single, “Nutshell,’’ produced by J Dilla.

A Tribe Called Quest would reunite multiple times, including at the Rock the Bells festival in 2004, 2008, and 2010, and more recently in 2013, as an opening act for two New York shows on Kanye West’s “Yeezus’’ tour, which Q-Tip called the group’s final concerts.

“Beats, Rhymes & Life,’’ the 2011 documentary by the actor Michael Rapaport, chronicled the constant tensions over control and leadership among A Tribe Called Quest’s members.

“I think it is ludicrous that we are not performing together,’’ Mr. Taylor told Rolling Stone last year. “We’re doing the fans a great injustice by not getting together and rocking.’’

A Tribe Called Quest would perform once more together as a quartet, reuniting on “The Tonight Show’’ in November.

Tributes flowed from the music world. At a concert in Australia on Wednesday, Kendrick Lamar led the crowd in a chant of “Phife! Dawg!’’ and thanked the rapper “for allowing me to do what I’m doing on this stage.’’ ?In a tweet, Chuck D of Public Enemy called Phife Dawg a “word warrior, simple as that. Breathed it & lined rhyme into sport. A true fire social narrator.’’