Fareed “Rip” Salamah

Fareed Salamah is an audio engineer and producer based in Miami, Florida, at Criteria Recording Studios.

Born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Fareed ‘Rip’ Salamah grew up on the island of St. Croix, Virgin Islands surrounded by a variety musical influences. At 12 years old he became intrigued by an old antique Fender Squire his brother had bought as a collector’s piece.

Rip began to fiddle around with chords and later learned scales and how to read music in band and high school. He then became deeply involved in the music scene at his school, especially Hip-Hop. He soon began making beats on Fruity Loops , purchased an MPC and Roland VS-1680 and formed a Hip-Hop group called VIPoetz.

He quickly realized how much he enjoyed producing and recording music, especially making it sound and feel good. In his second year of studying Biology at the University of the Virgin Islands, Rip saw an ad for Full Sail in a XXL magazine, and decided to abandon his science studies and attend a school for music. Rip graduated with an Associates in Recording Arts in late 2005, and was employed at the Hit Factory Criteria in the beginning of 2006.

Starting out as a runner, he worked his way up to assistant engineer, Before he knew it he was working with and learning from some of the best in the industry. Eventually, he worked his way up to in-house engineer and went on to work with one of his inspirations, Timbaland, as well as the music moguls Cash Money Records.

In 2012, Rip received a GRAMMY Certification and participation award for the Drake album “Take Care”, which won the GRAMMY for best Rap Album. The Sound Audio Engineering and Production was launched in 2009, and have continued to mix, record, and produce records for some of the biggest artists, producers and DJs in the industry.