The Man Who Lost His Company Built the Machine That Ran Hip Hop

In February 1986, Roger Linn wrote to his dealers that Linn Electronics had "ceased all operations, at least temporarily." He was thirty. Six years earlier, his LM-1 had put digital recordings of real drums inside a drum machine for the first time, and the pop charts filled up with it. Two years later, his signature was printed on the front of the Akai MPC60 — the grey box that, with the MPCs that followed it, sat at the center of hip-hop for decades. And then he lost that too. This is the story of the man behind the LM-1, the LinnDrum and the MPC: the fuzz pedal that picked up the radio, the prototype in a cardboard box, the drummers who asked whether a machine could create, the Linn 9000 that sank his company, the call from London that brought him to Akai, the fight over his royalty, Akai's own collapse — and the January 2025 NAMM stage where Akai sat him next to Jermaine Dupri, Just Blaze, Jimmy Jam and Bryan-Michael Cox. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 1:47 The Pedal That Picked Up the Radio 4:34 A Prototype in a Cardboard Box 7:30 Friend or Foe? 8:58 A Particular Talent for Bad Decisions 12:51 A Call from London 15:45 Thirteen Seconds 18:17 Naive Me 21:08 One Floor of a House SOURCES Roger Linn, letter to Linn dealers and service centers (1986), printed in Bobby Nathan's "In the Studio" column, Keyboard, October 1986 Roger Linn Design, "Roger FAQ" and company history pages (2025–2026), including Roger Linn's essay of 1 June 2026 Dan LeRoy, "Roger Linn interview", Parts I and II, Bonus Beats (2022) Paul White, "The Return of Roger Linn", Sound On Sound (June 2002) Warren Cann, Sound On Sound (November 1991) "The Drum Computer: Friend or Foe?", Modern Drummer, February/March 1982 Tony Horkins, "I Murdered the Drummer!", International Musician & Recording World, June 1985 Warren Cann, review of the Linn LM-1, Electronics & Music Maker, September 1981; Paul Wiffen, review of the Linn 9000, Electronics & Music Maker, April 1985 "NAMM Report", Music Technology, August 1987 David Mellor, Akai MPC3000 review, Sound On Sound, October 1994; Paul Wiffen, Akai MPC2000 review, Sound On Sound, April 1997 Interview with Roger Linn, KVR Audio (July 2010) Corry Banks, interview with Roger Linn (November 2012) and interview with Mike McRoberts (January 2013), BBOY Tech Report Lance Scott Walker, "Instrumental Instruments: MPC60", Red Bull Music Academy Daily (November 2017) Tim Noakes, "Roger Linn: doctor beat", Dazed (2006) Nara Shin, "Interview: Roger Linn", Cool Hunting (March 2014) Richard Hallebeek, interview with Roger Linn, Music Maker (2002) Roger Linn interview, NAMM Oral History Program (2005) Mike McRoberts and Kwame in "Teddy Riley and New Jack Swing: An Oral History", Red Bull Music Academy Daily (May 2017) Steve Alcorn, "Alcorn McBride History" Hogan Lovells, on the Akai Holdings case (July 2021); Teikoku Databank figures on Akai Professional M.I. (December 2005) Preezy Brown, "Akai's MPC Sample Is Bridging the Gap for Generations of Music Producers", VIBE (June 2026) Roger Linn's statement on the Behringer LmDrum (January 2025) ARCHIVE NAMM Oral History Program; Akai MPC60 training video (1988); Modern Drummer (Internet Archive); Roger Linn Design museum and press pages; advertisements and brochures for the LM-1, LinnDrum, Linn 9000, LinnDrum Midistudio, MPC60 and MPC3000. PHOTOS Akai MPC60: Kimi95, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Roger Linn with Geert Bevin and David Wessel, CNMAT Berkeley 2011: Thomas Bonte, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.