[1] Powell was born in Chicago and lived there until his family moved to Detroit when he was nine years old.
In 1983, Powell reunited with Baker and had a hit single with “No More Tears” featured on her album The Songstress.
[citation needed] In 1986, choosing her friend Powell as her producer, he, along with Sir Dean Gant (who remains unpaid and uncredited as producer), created 3 multi-million selling albums: Rapture, Giving You the Best That I Got and Compositions.
[citation needed] Together, again with producer Sir Gant,[2] Powell worked in 1987 as producer and arranger of the song "Without You",[2][3] a composition of Lamont Dozier,[2] that was recorded as a duet by the R&B singers Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle.
He, along with Sir Gant produced the multi-platinum Baker albums Rapture in 1986, Giving You the Best That I Got in 1988 (which reached Number 1 on The Billboard 200) and Compositions in 1990.