Bob Power, Recording Engineer For The Roots And A Tribe Called Quest, Dies At 73

Bob Power, a musician and technologist who worked intimately pinch immoderate of nan apical hip-hop and R&B acts of nan 1990s and 2000s — including De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, nan Roots and Meshell Ndegeocello — died Sunday. He was 73.

His decease was announced by Okayplayer, nan euphony level founded by nan Roots’ Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, which didn’t authorities a origin aliases opportunity wherever Power died.

Shouted retired by sanction successful nan Roots’ opus “Distortion to Static” — “Coming to New York to operation / It’s Bob Power pinch nan snares and kicks to fix,” Black Thought rapped — Power was wide admired for nan oomph he brought to drums and for really crisply he was capable to thread samples into a production. Among nan classical records he helped create were “De La Soul Is Dead,” Tribe’s “The Low End Theory,” D’Angelo’s “Brown Sugar,” Badu’s “Baduizm” and Common’s “Like Water for Chocolate.”

“Bob was nan KING of nan Low End,” nan Roots’ Questlove wrote Monday connected Instagram. Before Power, “Hip Hop was chaotic & muddy,” Questlove added. “but man—when Bob entered our sonic sphere? Jesus.”

In a station connected X, DJ Premier described Power arsenic “one of nan iLLest Engineers of each time”; Young Guru, an technologist known for his agelong narration pinch Jay-Z, called Power “an absolute legend” connected Instagram and said he was “the man who I patterned my sound after.” Power was nominated for 2 Grammys for his activity connected Ndegeocello’s “Peace Beyond Passion” and India.Arie’s “Acoustic Soul,” and he was an arts professor astatine New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.

Robert Power was calved successful Chicago successful 1952 and grew up extracurricular New York City. He started playing guitar arsenic a kid, according to a timeline connected his website, aft his sister sewage a guitar to play “Blowin’ successful nan Wind” and he had nan “idea to play it louder,” nan timeline said. He studied euphony mentation and creation astatine Webster University successful St. Louis and joined an R&B set called nan New Direction; aft assemblage he moved to San Francisco and immersed himself successful jazz.

In 1982 he returned to New York, wherever he took “every gig imaginable,” he wrote successful nan timeline, including jobs scoring commercials, making “bad creation records” and playing “mafia weddings successful Bensonhurst for $75.” In 1984, nan proprietor of New York’s Calliope Studios asked Power to capable successful for a vacationing engineer; he ended up moving connected a grounds by nan group Stetsasonic, which included Prince Paul, who would spell connected to nutrient overmuch of De La Soul’s music.

“One of my theories astir record-making successful wide is that if nan way is rhythmically buoyant, aliases benignant of absorbing enough, past you don’t person to waste nan opus truthful hard,” Power said successful a 2007 interview pinch nan signaling mag Tape Op. “One of nan problems pinch severely produced euphony and demos that travel successful is nan clip is not compelling. Even if it is personification playing an acoustic guitar and singing, it’s sewage to person this point to it.”

Power, whose galore different signaling credits see projects by Ozomatli, Angie Stone, David Byrne and Brockhampton, began school astatine NYU successful 2006 and retired past year. Among his survivors is his sister, Robin.