Bob Power

As a teenager discovering hip-hop I was used to features, shout-outs, and appearances. In fact, a lot of the music we chased down in those days came from these introductions. An artist getting a guest verse could work in either direction: bring an established artist in to bless your song, or give a new act a shot.

This was how I first heard the name Bob Power (on Kapell).

It was probably A Tribe Called Quest’s Verses from the Abstract (on Kapell) or 1:38 in The Chase, Part II (on Kapell) from Midnight Marauders (on Kapell). Regardless, Bob didn’t fit the pattern I was used to. He wasn’t a rapper, singer, or producer (yet). He was an audio engineer!

I’m not going to regurgitate Bob’s story here. You can watch him in his own words via this interview on YouTube:

The whole thing is good, but if you jump to around 7:30 in the video you’ll hear why Bob Power’s work was so important. Hip-hop producers get a lot of credit but audio engineering helps to bridge the producer’s intention with what comes out of your speaker. You can read this Red Bull Music Academy interview with Bob where he describes his contributions and his work with so many amazing artists in the ’90s hip-hop / soul era.

Part of the reason I made Kapell was to make it easier to find folks like Bob Power. Easier to see how his ear and mind linked a body of work that anchors a chunk of what makes up my personal love of music.

Bob Power passed away in March of 2026. The Roots’ drummer and hip-hop historian Questlove posted a wonderful remembrance which I’m going to pull quote in it’s entirety because embedding an Instagram post sucks.

I Be Questlove……& I’m Really Really Tired Of Doing This You Guys…….

whether you know it or not, one of these albums changed your life.

This isn’t even a fraction of the work he is responsible for—-at least 8 of these artists entire career was presented to you by Bob Power.

So legend has it that one night in Latin Quarter @kooldjredalert played “Go Stetsa” (from the original hip hop band (@stetsa.shop) Stetsasonic) and @qtiptheabstract’s mind is 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯——it was 87 and how the hell are those drums THAT LOUD (rock fans, you know how CHUNKY Bonzo’s drums sounded on @ledzeppelin lps?—-that is a risky move because if TOO loud your records would skip——but somehow he enhanced BOOM BAP!!!! (You know how when cars annoyingly rattle all that filth flarn filth & LOUD drums and your voice gotta cut thru ALL THAT?) welp, Bob was the KING of the Low End. Drums Crispy & Loud (cue A Tribe Called Quest “Buggin Out”) but the BASS is FULL (peep “On & On” from Erykah—-he makes it sound and feel so easy) but before him? Hip Hop was chaotic & muddy (in the most beautiful way ever—-peep Straight Out The Jungle for the OG Wu Tang dirty sound esthetic) I love dirty ish….but man——when Bob entered our sonic sphere? Jesus——-

You could NOT encounter a more engaging, enthusiastic, laser focused craftsman of sound and Sonic’s (engineer/mixing/production) I mean he’d let me bug him ad nausea about “what does this button do? that button?

Bob was our training wheels for how to present music.

I’m so devastated by his passing.

Thank you for changing all of our lives Bob.

Emphasis mine.

Learn more about him on Wikipedia and use Kapell to see everything he mixed, engineered, produced and mastered (on Kapell).

Thanks, Bob.