Bob Power, the engineer and producer behind seminal albums by the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, and De La Soul, has died. A funeral listing noted that he died on Sunday, March 1, but did not confirm a cause of death. Power was 73.
Born in 1952 in Chicago, Power earned a degree in music theory from St. Louis’ Webster College and a Masters in jazz from San Francisco’s Lone Mountain College. He remained in California from 1975 through 1982, scoring the Emmy-winning PBS show Over Easy and penning jingles for brands including Coca-Cola, Hardee’s and the United States Postal Service. Powers then moved cross-country to New York, looking to further his career and take on any gigs he could; this led him to perform everywhere from a psychiatric hospital to a mafia wedding in Bensonhurst.
In 1984, the owner of Calliope Studios invited Power to sit in as an engineer on a session for the pioneering Brooklyn rap outfit Stetsasonic. The band were so impressed with Power’s work, they kept him around for the recording of their breakthrough 1986 album On Fire. Power had found his niche in hip-hop, and went on to work closely with the New York collective Native Tongues, which included A Tribe Called Quest, Black Sheep, De La Soul, and Jungle Brothers.
Some of Power’s most notable engineering credits include A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, De La Soul Is Dead, Baduizm, and Brown Sugar. Reflecting on The Low End Theory in 2019, Power said: “In a way, it was the Sgt. Pepper’s of hip-hop. It's a record that changed the way that people thought about putting music together. I’m not a big hip-hop historian; I just know the stuff that I worked on.” Power also brought his magic touch to several Roots albums, including Do You Want More?!!!??! and Things Fall Apart. He earned two Grammy nominations during his lifetime—Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Meshell Ndegeocello’s Peace Beyond Passion and an Album of the Year nod for his work on India.Arie’s Acoustic Soul.”
Power began teaching at the NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music—part of the Tisch School of the Arts—in 2006, retiring in 2025 with arts professor emeritus status. “Bob's nearly 20-year presence at CDI helped shape the principles and values of our wonderful Institute,” CDI chair Nicholas Sansano told Pitchfork over email. “He embodied what we aspire to be as people and professionals. Beyond being a musical legend who influenced the sound and feel of an important era in our cultural history, he was one of the most generous and caring people I had the great honor of calling a friend, a brother, and a teacher.”
Since news of Power’s passing broke, artists including Badu, DJ Premier, Killer Mike, Citizen Cope, and Young Guru have shared tributes to him. “You could NOT encounter a more engaging, enthusiastic, laser focused craftsman of sound,” Questlove wrote. “Bob was our training wheels for how to present music.” Maggie Rogers, one of Power’s former students at NYU, shared: “Bob always made me feel so seen in my weird creative brain and always kept me searching.”
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