67 Friends Who Did Acts Of Kindness So Amazing It's Hard To Believe

We've all heard the saying thatfriendsare the family we choose for ourselves. And honestly, sometimes they show up even harder than actual relatives. They're the ones fixing your outfit five minutes before your sister's wedding, driving across the city at midnight because you forgot your passport, or sitting on the floor with you when life feels too heavy.

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So today, we've rounded up some of thekindest, most heart-melting acts of friendship that prove real ones truly exist. From grand gestures to small, thoughtful surprises, these stories are guaranteed to make you smile. Keep scrolling for wholesome proof that good friends make life a whole lot brighter.

Last night, my friends threw me a surprise party and showered me with love. It feels really good to be genuinely happy and loved. I hope I never lose this feeling.

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Friendship is one of those rare gifts that makes life softer and brighter at the same time. A true friend always seems to have something kind up their sleeve — a late-night pep talk, a surprise visit, or just the right joke when you need it most. They become your chosen family, your safe place, your emergency contact for both chaos and comfort. And it's not just us regular folks who treasure bonds like these. Even celebrities, with all their fame and flashing cameras, lean on deep, meaningful friendships that have stood the test of time. Some of their stories are so wholesome, they genuinely restore your faith in people.

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I guess Max thought about that and sent me this text.

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Take Zach Galifianakis, for example. Long before he became the breakout star of The Hangover, he was just another aspiring actor in the '90s trying to make it in Hollywood. Around that time, Mimi Haist was working at a laundromat in Santa Monica after separating from her husband. She earned tips for folding clothes and was allowed to sleep there because she had nowhere else to go. That's where their paths crossed. Years later, when Galifianakis learned that Mimi had become homeless,he stepped inwithout hesitation. He found her a place to live and stayed in touch, remaining her loyal friend for the rest of her life.

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My single dad friend is always looking for things to do with his two young kids. I was making several batches of apple crumble for friends and family, so I thought I'd put together a deconstructed one with instructions as a fun hands-on activity for him and his littles. They absolutely loved it, and it made my heart so happy.

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Then there's the decades-long bond between Good Will Hunting stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Their friendship goes way back to the 1980s, when Affleck was eight and Damon was ten. Itreportedlybegan when Affleck stood up to a bully who was picking on Damon. During a 2019 appearance on The Conan O'Brien Show, Damon reflected on that moment, saying, "I remember that was a big moment… Going like, 'This guy, he will put himself in a really bad spot for me.' Like, 'This is a good friend to have.'" From childhood scuffles to Oscar wins, their friendship has survived Hollywood, success, and everything in between.

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I was 15, living in Norway, and was really into computer games. I met a guy through Steam (a computer game platform) from Amsterdam. We became really good friends and would play games together almost every day or watch movies together over voice calls for a few years. Time passed, and we slowly grew out of our routine of playing video games. We continued to stay in contact through Facebook.I ended up moving to the East Coast USA 11 years ago, and then moved to California in 2022. My friend's partner grew up in California, and I received news last Thursday that they had just arrived in California to visit her family. It turns out that they were only an hour away! After convincing my wife that I had to meet this guy, we planned a day trip to Joshua Tree. We met at the Joshua Tree Visitor Center. My wife and I arrived early, but as soon as he pulled into the parking lot, we recognized each other and waved as he was finding a parking.The day was awesome! Meeting him in person was like hanging out with him virtually. Like we had been close friends forever. We toured Joshua Tree for 6 hours and then went to dinner. Sadly, he had to return to Amsterdam, but we will definitely meet in person again.

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This morning, he dropped by with DayQuil and 3 containers of my favorite recipe of Filipino sopas (chicken macaroni soup). He made it himself.

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Sometimes, friendships formed on set turn into lifelong sisterhoods. Ana de Armas and Elena Furiase met in 2007 while co-starring in the show The Boarding School, and they've been inseparable ever since. De Armas had moved from Cuba to Madrid at just 18, leaving behind her family and everything familiar. In an interview with Vogue, sheopened upabout how difficult that transition was. Elena and her family embraced her completely, and De Armas even considers Elena's mother, Lolita Flores, a second mom. She shared that on days when she felt homesick and overwhelmed, the three of them would pile into bed together and laugh until she forgot her sadness. Years later, their bond remains as strong as ever.

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Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa share the kind of friendship that quite literally saved a life. Though they had been close for years, the world truly saw their connection in 2017 when Raisadonated a kidneyto Gomez, who has lupus. The gesture stunned fans and became a powerful example of unconditional love. Despite rumors about the distance between them, Gomez has publicly shut them down. She has repeatedly referred to Raisa as her "best friend" and once admitted she felt completely overwhelmed by her generosity.

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Pedro Pascal and Sarah Paulson's friendship proves that loyalty matters most when no one else is watching. Long before Pascal became a household name through The Last of Us and The Mandalorian, he was struggling to get by. The two met in the early '90s when they were both trying to break into the industry. In an interview withEsquire, Paulson revealed that there were times she would give Pascal her per diem from jobs she was working on so he could afford food. It wasn't glamorous, and there were no red carpets involved — just quiet support between two friends chasing big dreams.

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Now I can see us together every day.

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These celebrity friendships remind us that behind the fame, the premieres, and the headlines, there are real human connections holding everything together. Whether it's standing up to a bully, opening your home to someone far from theirs, donating an organ, or slipping a friend grocery money when they're broke, these acts of loyalty speak louder than any award speech. At the end of the day, success feels sweeter when you have someone who was there before it all.

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Well, whether it's celebrities showing up for their closest friends or everyday people quietly doing something thoughtful, it all comes down to the same thing — kindness has a way of leaving a lasting mark. Sometimes it's loud and life-changing, and other times it's small and deeply personal. Did this post remind you of a friend who stood by you when you needed it most? Or maybe a moment when you showed up for someone without thinking twice? We'd love to hear your thoughts and your own friendship stories in the comments.

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We haven't seen each other in over ten years, but we catch up from time to time. We share a birthday, so she was my 'twin' growing up.

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Last night, my friends threw me a surprise 18th birthday party, and I don't remember feeling this happy. Here's one of the pictures from last night.

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When I was younger, I was honestly kind of an introvert. I didn't really know how to have friends. It wasn't until I met Matthew. We would walk home together all the time, and my parents even let him stay the night all the time. They were excited that I had made my first real friend. We had so much fun. We played all kinds of games together all the time. He taught me how friendship worked.One day in the summer. He asked if he could spend the night one last time. Confused I asked why he said last. Turns out he was moving away the next day. We had a huge blast and a night I'll never forget. We talked all night about our deepest thoughts. It was incredible. The next day, he moved. We had kept in touch over Xbox 360. We'd play GTA5 and stuff together. It wasnt until one day I saw on his Xbox series about section that he was switching to the PlayStation. And he was selling his Xbox. After that. I lost him. He never got back on. And I didn't know his new username. Weirdly enough. Even though we were best friends. Never asked for his last name. I might've once, but I obviously forgot. It wasn't until I asked a long-time friend to dig up some yearbooks that I found him. I have so much to thank him for.

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In China, 18-year-old Xie Xu carried his disabled best friend, Zhang Chi, to every class for nearly three years so he wouldn't miss school, and both ended up as top students.

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She has balloons waiting and a great conversation. I had a horrible week, the week before being shamed online, then losing my job, and I ended up in the ER CRT. Thanks, Barb, love you.

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Just had my choir concert at my school. My best friend had his before mine, and when I was done with mine, he gave me flowers. He's my favorite person in the entire world, and I'm so glad he's willing to put in this type of effort just to make me happy. He knows I really love flowers, and I'm so glad that he did this.

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Meet Maurice. He likes to peek out from under my sweatshirt to make sure I am having a good day.

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I broke down after opening the mail. Made me smile hard my face hurts.

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I'm pretty sure it's actually only 4 years, but the fact that they did this on their own it pretty sweet.

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Came back to a clean house and fresh laundry and notes like this all over my room.

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As the whistle blew, he walked off head down and upset. His buddy on the other team came over, put his arm around him, and they walked off together - turning that frown into a smile.

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I play on Xbox, but she doesn't know much about gaming. As a woman who's been struggling to make friends, her effort to give me a meaningful gift, despite her lack of knowledge, moved me. I will cherish this mug forever.

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67 Friends Who Did Acts Of Kindness So Amazing It’s Hard To Believe

We've all heard the saying thatfriendsare the family we choose for ourselves. And honestly, sometimes they show up ev...
Analysis-Netanyahu's war alliance with Trump faces test as Iran crisis widens

By Maayan Lubell and Rami Ayyub

Reuters

JERUSALEM, March 4, (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered on a career-long ambition to topple Iran's leadership, but his lockstep alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump faces a test as their joint military campaign threatens to drag on, with its goals potentially shifting in the coming weeks.

At the outset of the bombing campaign on Saturday, both Trump and Netanyahu said regime change was the goal. But in remarks at the White House on Monday, two days after ‌Israeli air strikes killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and much of his leadership, Trump did not mention overthrowing Iran's government as his top priority.

The U.S. goal, he said, was to destroy Iran's missiles and navy, and to stop it from obtaining a ‌nuclear weapon. His Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said at a press conference that same day that the operation was not a "so-called regime-change war."

Netanyahu, by contrast, has called on Iran's citizens to take to the streets and overthrow their rulers as recently as Monday night. "We're going to create the conditions, first, for the Iranian people to get control of their destiny," he told ​Fox News.

Asked about the U.S. and Israeli goals, a U.S. official familiar with the White House's objectives told Reuters that the two countries' military campaigns have different objectives. "Regime change is one of theirs," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In the build-up to war, Netanyahu successfully convinced Trump that it was a now-or-never moment to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons and destroy its ballistic missile capabilities. Trump has said the operation could take "four or five weeks" or "whatever it takes."

"I don't get bored, I never get bored," he said at the White House on Monday in response to questions about his capacity for sustained focus.

But Israeli officials privately acknowledge that ultimately it will be Trump who decides when the war ends. Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration, said that Trump may decide to seek an "early off-ramp" from the war.

"If President Trump decides that he's reached the end of this operation before ‌Netanyahu wants it to end, he's still going to end it," said Shapiro, of the Washington-based Atlantic ⁠Council think-tank.

President Trump faces domestic pressures that could affect his thinking as the war drags on and expands.

The operation is unpopular in the United States, with only one in four Americans saying they back U.S. strikes on Iran, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Primary votes began Tuesday in the battleground states of Texas and North Carolina that may decide who controls Congress after the fall midterm elections.

With the crisis disrupting shipping and energy production, rising gas prices could become a daily ⁠reminder of the affordability crisis facing many Americans. Gas is up 11 cents per gallon in the U.S. this week, with much higher spikes in global markets suggesting more increases for American consumers.

Inside the U.S., support for Israel has become a partisan issue, with some 59% of Americans holding an unfavourable view of Israel's government, up from 51% a year ago, according to a Pew Research Center poll from October.

The White House and Netanyahu's office did not respond to requests for comment.

PLANNING FOR WAR

In power for most of the last three decades, Netanyahu has often clashed with American leaders, notably publicly criticizing former Democratic President Barack Obama for negotiating a nuclear deal ​with ​Iran. Democratic President Joe Biden's administration often clashed with Netanyahu and withheld some weapons from Israel during its military assault in Gaza.

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After Trump's return to office in 2025, ​Netanyahu met with the president seven times and repeatedly pushed in phone calls to focus his attention away from ‌Israel's war in Gaza and toward Iran's ballistic missiles and nuclear ambitions, painting the clerical rulers in Tehran as a common enemy, a U.S. official with direct knowledge of their conversations said.

The officials and others who shared details about U.S.-Israeli planning and objectives spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive military discussions.

Even as Trump dispatched envoys to nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva and Oman, the U.S. and Israel had been at work for months planning their military operation, and timing for the attack was decided weeks ago, an Israeli official said.

Netanyahu's last meeting with Trump was a hastily-arranged visit on February 11, 2026 which included a three-hour meeting at the White House, uncharacteristically closed to the press.

The day after that meeting, the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, the world's largest warship, departed the Caribbean where it was supporting U.S. military action in Venezuela, for the Mediterranean.

"I have tried to persuade successive American administrations to take firm action, and President Trump did," Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday.

Trump rejected the notion that Israel might have forced his country into war, telling reporters at the White House on Tuesday: "Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first, ‌and I didn't want that to happen. So if anything I might have forced Israel's hand."

A POLITICAL SURVIVOR

For the 76-year-old Netanyahu, his prosecution of a war that is ​supported by most Israelis represents an opportunity to seal his legacy ahead of elections, due by October, in which he faces formidable challenges.

His far-right coalition faces fissures, he's on trial ​for corruption he denies and Israelis are still reeling from a multi-front war that began in 2023 and which Netanyahu has promised ​will transform the Middle East.

Israel's longest-serving leader has shown remarkable political skill in the past. Despite successive polls showing that he will lose the ballot in October, Netanyahu still has a fair chance of victory if Israeli fatalities and the ‌economic costs to Israel of the war remain low, said Udi Sommer, a political scientist at Tel Aviv ​University.

"If it succeeds, relatively quickly (like) in June 2025, it will work very much ​in his favour as Israel's protector and the one who had woven a particularly successful relationship with the administration in Washington," Sommer said.

Netanyahu's security credentials were shattered on October 7, 2023, when Iran-backed Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

It was followed by a two-year military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, where Israel's longest war has killed at least 72,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, left much of the enclave in ruins, and exacted the highest Israeli military fatalities in decades.

Netanyahu ​has rejected responsibility for the security failures of October 7 and has pointed to Israel's subsequent gains in ‌weakening Iran's proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Their ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria has also been ousted.

Even if Israel achieves its military objectives in Iran, that will not wash away the outrage of many Israeli voters, including among Netanyahu's own right-wing ​base, said political analyst Amotz Asa-el of the Jerusalem-based Shalom Hartman research institute.

"The past three years' events have been so traumatic and so dramatic and so revolting to that swing vote that I don't think any kind of salvation in Iran will ​offset this," he said.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem with additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv. Editing by Michael Learmonth)

Analysis-Netanyahu's war alliance with Trump faces test as Iran crisis widens

By Maayan Lubell and Rami Ayyub JERUSALEM, March 4, (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deli...
Lock step no more: Iran war shows cracks in Trump's conservative media support

NEW YORK (AP) — For President Donald Trump, some of the sharpest criticism he's faced in the early days of theIran warhas come from once-loyal media figures far more accustomed to singing his praises.

Associated Press FILE - President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File) FILE - Megyn Kelly speaks at a campaign rally with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at PPG Paints Arena, Nov. 4, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) FILE - Tucker Carlson attends a meeting with President Donald Trump and oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is reflected in a video camera lens as she speaks during a briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard) President Donald Trump, accompanied by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaks to reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

US Iran MAGA Media

Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Matt Walsh are among those to express discontent. It's been noticed in the White House, which has been playing defense on social media and in interviews.

To be sure, these critics are the minority of the media MAGAsphere, where Fox News' biggest stars remain cheerleaders. But their words illustrate conservative media's influence and how valuable it is to Trump when all runs as a well-oiled machine — and, by contrast, how much of a problem it can be if it fractures.

Much of the criticism has centered on Israel's influence on Trump's decision to go to war. Carlson, theformer Fox News starwho has built his own independent operation, told ABC News over the weekend that the attack was "absolutely disgusting and evil."

"It's hard to say this, but the United States didn't make the decision here," Carlson said on his podcast, citing the Israeli prime minister. "Benjamin Netanyahu did."

'No one should have to die for a foreign country'

Kelly, anotherformer Fox anchor gone indie, said about American casualties on her show that "no one should have to die for a foreign country. I don't think those service members died for the United States. I think they died for Iran or Israel."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio's remarks prior to aCapitol Hill briefingwere a flashpoint. Rubio said that Trump had given the go-ahead for the operation knowing that Israel was prepared to strike and he feared retaliation from Iran against U.S. bases in the region.

"We knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them, before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties," Rubio said. House Speaker Mike Johnson said that if the administration had not acted, lawmakers would have wondered why.

Walsh, a Daily Wire host, wrote on X that Rubio was "flat out telling us that we're in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said."

Trump told journalist Rachael Bade in an interview that he did not believe that the opinions of Carlson and Kelly are shared by his base of supporters. "I think that MAGA is Trump," he said. "MAGA's not the other two."

Former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has fashioned herself as an influencer and media figure sincebitterly breakingwith Trump, said on Kelly's podcast that she was furious over the U.S. military action. "Make America Great Again," Greene says, "was supposed to be America first, not Israel first."

Will Trump supporters return to the fold?

Trump is probably right to think that most of his supporters will return to the fold if they're unhappy with the Iran attack, said Jason Zengerle, author of "Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind." Given the consistency of his views on the topic, Carlson is probably the most important of Trump's conservative critics, Zengerle said.

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"If the war does go badly, I think it strengthens the hand of someone like Tucker," he said. "All of this is a debate about what happens after Trump is gone anyway."

There have been cracks in Trump's conservative media support prior to Iran, notably with the vast and sprawling narratives around the Epstein report. But this week's criticism unleashed some startling internal vitriol. Ben Shapiro of "The Daily Wire" called Kelly "wildly inconsistent" and a coward. Elisabeth Hasselbeck denounced Kelly for her suggestion that American servicemen died for Israel. "How dare you?" Hasselbeck said Tuesday on "The View."

Fox News' Sean Hannity said that Carlson was "not the person I knew when he was at Fox." Kelly denounced Hannity as a supplicant who "would never say anything other than to puff Donald Trump up."

It's worth remembering that most of what readers and viewers are seeing in conservative media supports Trump. Howard Polskin, publisher of The Righting newsletter, estimated Tuesday that about 95% of what he's monitored on websites is behind the president. "Trump Stands Tall on Iran," headlined The American Spectator.

The most popular personalities on Fox News — still the top dog among conservatives — continue to be supportive. Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Mark Levin were among the most vociferous leading up to the attack and after. "The president has shown more courage and this Pentagon, Pete Hegseth's Pentagon, has executed brilliantly once again," said Kilmeade, the "Fox & Friends" co-host.

"I think that MAGA gives him the benefit of the doubt, no question about it," Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary during the early part of Trump's first term, said on his podcast Tuesday. "I think he's built up a ton of credibility with the base. ... Look, you've got PTSD from a lot of our former leaders between Iraq and Afghanistan in particular, who only know forever wars, and so I get it. But this president has proven now twice that he knows what he's doing."

Criticism of war rollout draws specific White House rebuke

Thepodcast influencerswho helped to drive many young men into Trump's camp during the 2024 campaign have been largely quiet so far.

Some of Walsh's criticism this week appeared to sting so much that it drew a specific rebuke from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

"So far we've heard that although we killed the whole Iranian regime, this was not a regime change war," Walsh wrote on Monday. "And although we obliterated their nuclear program, we had to do this because of their nuclear program. And although Iran was not planning any attacks on the U.S., they also might have been, depending on who you ask. And although we are not fighting this war to free the Iranian people, they are now free, or might be, depending on who seizes power, and we have no idea who that will be. The messaging on this thing is, to put it mildly, confused."

Leavitt posted a lengthy response on X explaining Trump's rationale. "Simply put," she wrote, "the terrorist Iranian regime would not say yes to peace."

Bauder and Swenson reported from New York, Kinnard from Washington.

Lock step no more: Iran war shows cracks in Trump's conservative media support

NEW YORK (AP) — For President Donald Trump, some of the sharpest criticism he's faced in the early days of theIran wa...
Bob Power, recording engineer for the Roots and A Tribe Called Quest, dies at 73

Bob Power, a musician and engineer who worked closely with some of the top hip-hop and R&B acts of the 1990s and 2000s — includingDe La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest,D'Angelo,Erykah Badu, the Roots and Meshell Ndegeocello — died Sunday. He was 73.

LA Times Mix engineer Bob Power speaks during GRAMMY Pro Art of the Craft: Sounds of the City on May 19, 2016 in New York

His death wasannouncedby Okayplayer, the music platform founded by the Roots' Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, which didn't state a cause or say where Power died.

Shouted out by name in the Roots' song "Distortion to Static" — "Coming to New York to mix / It's Bob Power with the snares and kicks to fix," Black Thought rapped — Power was widely admired for the oomph he brought to drums and for how crisply he was able to thread samples into a production. Among the classic records he helped create were "De La Soul Is Dead," Tribe's "The Low End Theory," D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar," Badu's "Baduizm" and Common's "Like Water for Chocolate."

"Bob was the KING of the Low End," Questlove wrote Monday on Instagram. Before Power, "Hip Hop was chaotic & muddy," Questlove added. "but man—when Bob entered our sonic sphere? Jesus."

In a post on X, DJ Premier described Power as "one of the iLLest Engineers of all time"; Young Guru, an engineer known for his long relationship with Jay-Z, called Power "an absolute legend" on Instagram and said he was "the man who I patterned my sound after." Power was nominated for two Grammys for his work on Ndegeocello's "Peace Beyond Passion" and India.Arie's "Acoustic Soul," and he was an arts professor at New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.

Robert Power was born in Chicago in 1952 and grew up outside New York City. He started playing guitar as a kid, according toa timelineon his website, after his sister got a guitar to play "Blowin' in the Wind" and he had the "idea to play it louder," the timeline said. He studied music theory and composition at Webster University in St. Louis and joined an R&B band called the New Direction; after college he moved to San Francisco and immersed himself in jazz.

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Read more:Remembering when the Beach Boys had their own Santa Monica clubhouse

In 1982 he returned to New York, where he took "every gig imaginable," he wrote in the timeline, including jobs scoring commercials, making "bad dance records" and playing "mafia weddings in Bensonhurst for $75." In 1984, the owner of New York's Calliope Studios asked Power to fill in for a vacationing engineer; he ended up working on a record by the group Stetsasonic, which included Prince Paul, who would go on to produce much of De La Soul's music.

"One of my theories about record-making in general is that if the track is rhythmically buoyant, or sort of interesting enough, then you don't have to sell the song so hard," Power said ina 2007 interviewwith the recording magazine Tape Op. "One of the problems with badly produced music and demos that come in is the time is not compelling. Even if it is somebody playing an acoustic guitar and singing, it's got to have this thing to it."

Power, whose many other recording credits include projects by Ozomatli,Angie Stone, David Byrne andBrockhampton, began teaching at NYU in 2006 and retired last year. Among his survivors is his sister, Robin.

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This story originally appeared inLos Angeles Times.

Bob Power, recording engineer for the Roots and A Tribe Called Quest, dies at 73

Bob Power, a musician and engineer who worked closely with some of the top hip-hop and R&B acts of the 1990s and 2000...

 

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