Where it started

Saturday Sample Flip started because I ran out of time to make music. I came up in a recording studio — intern, assistant engineer, lead engineer, studio manager — and the higher I climbed, the less I created. But nobody ever booked Saturday mornings. So Saturdays became mine. I'd get in as early as I could, dig through samples, and make records for nobody but me. Friends caught on and started showing up with coffee and donuts. We'd chop samples all morning, and when social media came around, we posted our flips under one hashtag so we could find each other. Then producers from around the world started pulling up. Eventually 9th Wonder — one of the best to ever touch a sample — got wind of it and hosted an edition himself. Hundreds of producers submitted, he went through every one, and the five he picked came out to play beats and freestyle with him. That told me everything: this was never about anything but giving people a reason to make music. All these years later, Will Benitez and I rebuilt it as the app you're on now, with Tracklib letting us dig and clear samples digitally. I don't know where it goes from here. I just know that on Saturday mornings, I'm getting up to make a new record — and every week, you've got a place to do the same.