Bio
From drum lessons to MPC.Saï T is a producer, guitarist and musician based in Rennes, France. His music brings together guitar, sampling, drum machines and sound design, drawing from hip-hop, soul, jazz, rock, ambient, dub and rhythms from around the world. From raw MPC beats to spacious guitar pieces, everything comes back to groove, texture and feel.
He started with drums as a child, picked up the guitar in 2006 and began producing with Ableton in 2010. Between 2012 and 2016, he performed around Rennes with the Groovinylists crew, building live remixes with turntables, vinyl acapellas and an MPC 2000. From 2016 to 2020, he worked with the Sous le Manteau collective as a music creator, composer, guitarist and Ableton live operator, notably on the show Monstro.
From 2019 onward, his instrumental work reached a wider audience through a long run of releases across the lofi, boom bap and instrumental hip-hop scene. He performed at Lofi Festival alongside fellow beatmakers from the global lofi beats community, online on Twitch in 2020 and in person in Paris in 2023. After two years on Réunion Island, he moved back to mainland France in late 2022 and met Joe Kay in Paris in 2023, the start of a strong relationship with Soulection. His music appears in more than 30 episodes of Soulection Radio, followed by a remix on a Soulection compilation, then an invitation for a takeover and a solo mixtape in 2024.
Today his process moves freely between MPCs, Ableton, live guitar and effects. Rather than committing to one workflow or one genre, he lets the idea decide the process.
Highlights
Labels, radio, streams.- Released on more than ten labels and platforms, including NINETOFIVE, Inner Ocean Records, College Music, Chill Select, Vinyl Digital, Village Live Records, Retro Jungle, Blunt Shelter, Lofi Jazz Records, Chill Beats, Aviary Bridge and Speak Less Listen More.
- Featured in 30+ episodes of Soulection Radio; remix on a Soulection compilation (January 2024); Soulection Radio takeover and mixtape (July 2024).
- 28M+ streams on Spotify and Apple Music.
- 2026: the guitar project Salman, the Thirty Days series on Bandcamp, six beat tapes and a new release with Lofi Jazz. Earlier: Lost Tape EP, Soul Cycles and After the Rain EP (College Music).
- Co-organizer of Resample Sessions, a beatmaking community event in Rennes.
Resample Sessions
Same sample. Different minds.A collective beatmaking format co-organized in Rennes by Saï T and Koolkal, with local figures of the beatmaking, sampling and hip-hop scene taking part. Sessions are held at BFC, passage du Trégor, Rennes.
Everyone starts from the same sample, always taken from a vinyl record from Groove Rennes, the partner record shop in Rennes, and has about an hour to turn it into a beat in their own way. At the end, the beats are played for the whole group. It is not about competition, but about hearing how many directions one source can take.
MPCs, SPs, laptops, Koala and other tools are all welcome. The heart of the project is what each beatmaker does with the sample, not the gear.
Next: bigger sessions, bigger venues.
Gear and process
Hands first.MPC 2000 (owned since 2013), MPC 2500, SP-303 and SP-404 for a slower, hands-on approach to sampling. Ableton Live and its Capture feature for fast ideas. Serato Studio and stem separation for edits. Guitar into a pedalboard with the Hologram Microcosm for looping and ambient processing. Drums are usually the starting point for hip-hop tracks, but a track can just as easily start from a guitar improvisation.
Influences
Production: J Dilla, Pete Rock, Madlib, DJ Premier, Dibia$E, Knxwledge, Kankick, Ras G. Guitar: Jimi Hendrix, Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Biréli Lagrène, Mansur Brown, plus funk, jazz and neo-soul.
Photos
Free to use with the artist's name.
Links
Listen and contact.Bookings, press, collabs:
simon@saitbeats.com