Sunday Music: Remembering Bob Power
March 15, 2026·0 comments·zg
We don’t talk about engineers much. Part of this is my college degree talking - shoutout to my Music Production and Engineering majors - but even inside of the degree’s name, there’s a reason “engineer” gets second billing. Mic placement and knob twisting just doesn’t have the same glory to it compared to production. It’s the nerd side of the arts. And there’s an art to it.
If Rick Rubin was the producer I first realized was all over too many of my favorite records across genres, Bob Power was the equivalent engineer.
I didn’t want a death to be the thing that reminded me to explore production AND engineering alongside one another, but here we are. There’s an appreciation of both the art and science of these terms and I’m way overdue to explore.
Let’s celebrate Bob Power.
Bob Power was the guy who was willing to take hip-hop sessions seriously in the late 80s and early 90s. That might not sound significant but you have to think of why, and then you’ll start to see the downstream effects.
The first rap songs were live bands playing what a DJ/producer would sample and loop. Then, rap albums progressed to their more sample-centric era. Some producers were a little frustrated how the canned samples played on records.
The technology and the creativity were running with each other in a totally new musical direction. Pause to appreciate that reality for a moment. Give it an extra beat to think about where we are now with technology and creativity too.
Deep breath. Ok. Let’s go back to 1984.
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