Bob Energy, the engineer and producer behind seminal albums by the likes of A Tribe Known as Quest, Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, and De La Soul, has died. A funeral itemizing famous that he died on Sunday, March 1, however didn’t verify a explanation for dying. Energy was 73.
Born in 1952 in Chicago, Energy earned a level in music concept from St. Louis’ Webster School and a Masters in jazz from San Francisco’s Lone Mountain School. He remained in California from 1975 by way of 1982, scoring the Emmy-winning PBS present Over Simple and penning jingles for manufacturers together with Coca-Cola, Hardee’s and the USA Postal Service. Powers then moved cross-country to New York, seeking to additional his profession and tackle any gigs he might; this led him to carry out in every single place from a psychiatric hospital to a mafia marriage ceremony in Bensonhurst.
In 1984, the proprietor of Calliope Studios invited Energy to take a seat in as an engineer on a session for the pioneering Brooklyn rap outfit Stetsasonic. The band have been so impressed with Energy’s work, they stored him round for the recording of their breakthrough 1986 album On Hearth. Energy had discovered his area of interest in hip-hop, and went on to work intently with the New York collective Native Tongues, which included A Tribe Known as Quest, Black Sheep, De La Soul, and Jungle Brothers.
A few of Energy’s most notable engineering credit embrace A Tribe Known as Quest’s The Low Finish Principle, De La Soul Is Lifeless, Baduizm, and Brown Sugar. Reflecting on The Low Finish Principle in 2019, Energy stated: “In a approach, it was the Sgt. Pepper’s of hip-hop. It is a file that modified the best way that individuals considered placing music collectively. I’m not an enormous hip-hop historian; I simply know the stuff that I labored on.” Energy additionally introduced his magic contact to a number of Roots albums, together with Do You Need Extra?!!!??! and Issues Fall Aside. He earned two Grammy nominations throughout his lifetime—Finest Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Meshell Ndegeocello’s Peace Past Ardour and an Album of the 12 months nod for his work on India.Arie’s Acoustic Soul.”
Energy started instructing on the NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music—a part of the Tisch Faculty of the Arts—in 2006, retiring in 2025 with arts professor emeritus standing. “Bob’s practically 20-year presence at CDI helped form the ideas and values of our great Institute,” CDI chair Nicholas Sansano advised Pitchfork over e mail. “He embodied what we aspire to be as individuals and professionals. Past being a musical legend who influenced the sound and really feel of an essential period in our cultural historical past, he was probably the most beneficiant and caring individuals I had the good honor of calling a good friend, a brother, and a trainer.”
Since information of Energy’s passing broke, artists together with Badu, DJ Premier, Killer Mike, Citizen Cope, and Younger Guru have shared tributes to him. “You might NOT encounter a extra participating, enthusiastic, laser targeted craftsman of sound,” Questlove wrote. “Bob was our coaching wheels for the right way to current music.” Maggie Rogers, one in all Energy’s former college students at NYU, shared: “Bob at all times made me really feel so seen in my bizarre inventive mind and at all times stored me looking.”
