Faculty

Sam Sellers creates radically inclusive spaces through music at concerts, on dancefloors and in classrooms. With an expansive discography begun on wax in 2001, a performance career touching 5 continents, and 25 years in Education, there are countless places where you may have encountered him. Highlights include head coaching on MTV's MADE, headlining the Blue Note Jazz Festival, facilitating community workshops in Uganda and Chile to presenting at scholarly conferences and teaching at schools and universities throughout the nation. In Fall 2024 he released his new album, Fake Flowers Last Forever, and toured Europe in support. In Summer 2023 he was, for the second time, a State Dept. of Educational & Cultural Affairs Hip Hop Ambassador, deployed to Chile with the Next Level initiative. In 2022 he was honored with the Alumni Award from his alma mater, Grinnell College, which “recognizes individuals who embody the College’s mission of lifetime learning and service.” He is in his 10th year as professor at The New School, where his courses focus on Hip Hop Cultural History, multi-Elemental performing arts, Critical Pedgogy and Liberation Education, forging sustainable careers in music, and turntablism. He has thrice been nominated for a Distinguished Teaching Award. From the mic to the classroom to the turntables, he’s proven an exceptional and evolving technician with masterfully inviting crowd control and a gift for reading and responding to audiences. He's been the official DJ for Saturday Night Live Season 43, 44 & 48 afterparties; was resident DJ/MC at legendary jam session The Lesson; and is multiple-time champ of every NYC freestyle rap competition in the new millennium. He is also an ordained wedding officiant, having performed over 40 secular ceremonies. On his unique journey, he’s shared the stage and studio with Aloe Blacc, Ari at Home, The Beatbox House, bell hooks, Biz Markie, Blue Man Group, Brady Watt, Common, Doug E. Fresh, DJ Kool Herc, DJ Rob Swift, Freestyle Fellowship, Lin Manuel-Miranda, Marley Marl, Rahzel, Robert Glasper, The Roots, Slick Rick, Talib Kweli, Yebba and many more.

BA in Political Science, Grinnell College (IA)

Fake Flowers Last Forever LP, Say Word Entertainment, 2025.