Mix With The Masters with Bob Power: Chuckie In France (A Reflection)

“Ayo, my mic is sounding bugged, Bob Power, you there? (Yeah)/
Adjust the bass and treble make my s*@! sound clear.” - Q Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, “The Chase Pt. II”

Last week, I traveled for the first time overseas to the South of France and took up residency at Studios La Fabrique for a weeklong engineering and production Mix With The Masters seminar with the legendary Bob Power.

For those who don’t read the liner notes and may not know Bob’s name, let me give you a short list of his resume: The Roots (Do You Want More to The Tipping Point), De La Soul (De La Is Dead, Buhloone Mindstate, AOI: Bionix, And The Anonymous Nobody), D’Angelo (Brown Sugar), Common (Like Water For Chocolate, Electric Circus), Erykah Badu (Baduizm), and A Tribe Called Quest (Peoples’ Instinctive, The Low End Theory, Midnight Marauders).

If you know anything about me and my musical influences, that is who’s who of artists and albums that have changed my life. Bob’s work is a big piece of the foundation sonically I have always tried to create for Honor Flow Productions, so there was no better master teacher for me to learn from.

Bob is a mad scientist with his craft, and was incredibly giving with his time, knowledge, stories, and was just a cool ass OG to break bread with.

Furthermore, to be able to experience this with some absolute world class musicians/producers/engineers/human beings from around the world made it that much more special. I forever will cherish our camaraderie as much as our creative collaboration. Which by the way, resulted into a spontaneous writing, recording, and mixing of a track called “Worldwide” with Bob on the boards and bass.

What an honor, pleasure, and life re-affirming experience. Merci.

- DJ Chuck “thE oLd SouL”