Bob Power, recording engineer for the Roots and A Tribe Called Quest, dies at 73

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

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

Shouted retired by sanction successful the Roots’ opus “Distortion to Static” — “Coming to New York to premix / It’s Bob Power with the snares and kicks to fix,” Black Thought rapped — Power was wide admired for the oomph helium brought to drums and for however crisply helium was capable to thread samples into a production. Among the classical records helium helped make 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 the KING of the Low End,” the 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 the iLLest Engineers of each time”; Young Guru, an technologist known for his agelong narration with Jay-Z, called Power “an implicit legend” connected Instagram and said helium was “the antheral who I patterned my dependable after.” Power was nominated for 2 Grammys for his enactment connected Ndegeocello’s “Peace Beyond Passion” and India.Arie’s “Acoustic Soul,” and helium was an arts prof 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 got a guitar to play “Blowin’ successful the Wind” and helium had the “idea to play it louder,” the timeline said. He studied euphony mentation and creation astatine Webster University successful St. Louis and joined an R&B set called the New Direction; aft assemblage helium moved to San Francisco and immersed himself successful jazz.

In 1982 helium returned to New York, wherever helium took “every gig imaginable,” helium wrote successful the timeline, including jobs scoring commercials, making “bad creation records” and playing “mafia weddings successful Bensonhurst for $75.” In 1984, the proprietor of New York’s Calliope Studios asked Power to capable successful for a vacationing engineer; helium ended up moving connected a grounds by the radical 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 the way is rhythmically buoyant, oregon benignant of absorbing enough, past you don’t person to merchantability the opus truthful hard,” Power said successful a 2007 interrogation with the signaling mag Tape Op. “One of the problems with severely produced euphony and demos that travel successful is the clip is not compelling. Even if it is idiosyncratic playing an acoustic guitar and singing, it’s got to person this happening to it.”

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