Masters of Sound

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Electronic Musician has published the full transcript of our interview with Bob Power on the recording of A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory in their October 2011 issue, on newsstands now. You can also now read the Bob Power Pro/File at eMusician.com

In line with the interview, we’ve create a playlist with more clips from the interview, along with some footage of A Tribe Called Quest from the period. Check it out below

Twenty years ago, rapper/producer Q-Tip, DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and rapper Phife Dawg, collectively known as A Tribe Called Quest, returned from the studio with The Low End Theory, a watershed album that ushered in a new era of hip-hop. Sounding fresh even today, the record has gone on to earn “top albums of all time” recognition from no less than Rolling Stone, Spin, Vibe, The Source, Blender, Pitchfork Media, the All Music Guide, and countless artists. The group is also now the subject of a new documentary film directed by Michael Rapaport entitled Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest. With rekindled interest in the group on the 20th anniversary of this groundbreaking recording, what better time to dig deeper into the making of The Low End Theory?

This summer I had the pleasure of interviewing Bob Power, who engineered this landmark album. Power has produced, recorded, and mixed thousands of recordings (including numerous Grammy winners) for the likes of Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, India.Arie, Ozomatli, Common, Miles Davis, The Roots, Macy Gray, Curtis Mayfield, David Byrne, and Citizen Cope. He’s also now a faculty member at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University, but in 1991, he was a young man engineering one of the most influential albums of all time. More…

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So…what do you do when you have Jazz great Ron Carter playing on your session, and he hits a wrong note? That happened for A Tribe Called Quest, Bob Power tells the story

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In this video, Bob Power, recording engineer for A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory describes the album as the Sgt Pepper’s of hip Hop. Watch the video to find out why. Leave us a comment and let us know if you agree.

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Here’s our 1st excerpt from our Interview with Bob Power on the recording of A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, in this clip he talks about the air of unconscious racism in the New York recording establishment during the early days of Hip Hop.

Stay tuned to the blog, we’ll have a lot more posts from this interview. In addition the entire print version of the interview will be in the October Issue of Electronic Musician Magazine.