NPR Music

Music producer Phil Ramone, who worked with top artists to create some of the most unforgettable music of our era, has died. He was 79.

Once dubbed "The Pope of Pop," Ramone was hospitalized in late February with an aortic aneurysm, Billboard reports. His son, Matt, confirmed the music producer's death Saturday morning.

Ramone was one of the most prolific music producers of his time, as NPR's Sami Yenigun says:

Pharis and Jason Romero live in a tiny town called Horsefly. This might sound like some relic of the old west, preserved through Hollywood movies and antiquated lore, but it's a real live town in British Columbia. And the music they make – though it, too, sounds like it's been pulled from long ago and far away – is a product of their authentic creative spirit.

It's Thursday night in downtown Johannesburg and some 500 people are packed into Bassline, a warehouse-like club in a hipster-friendly neighborhood. They're here for South Africa's longest-running sound system, or crew of reggae DJs. But tonight they get something extra: a young woman sporting dreadlocks and an army cap gets on the mic to freestyle.