World Famous Magazine

Alright, people, let’s say it together: SA-RA (pronounced sah rah). If you haven’t been under a rock for the past few months, you’ve probably heard the buzz about the NY/LA threesome, whose debut album, Set-Ups and Justifications, will soon drop, courtesy of Kanye West’s label, G.O.O.D Music. If you have been under a rock, it’s probably vibrating from the bass of SA-RA bangers like “Star Wars.” Here’s the quick bio. SA-RA consists of Taz Arnold, Shafiq Husayn, and Om’Mas Keith, three veteran producers who have helped shape the sound of music from behind the scenes for years. The resumes are too extensive to reprint, but briefly, the individual members of SA-RA have worked with the likes of Dr. Dre, Prince, and Lauren Hill, to name a few. As a group, they brought Bilal’s most recent album to life. The group formed only four years ago, but the guys go way back.

If you’ve already heard some of the singles like “Big Fame” and “Nasty You” or the legendary internet bootleg that supposedly got them signed, you know that SA-RA is… well, different. The infectious, head-nodding beats, silly lyrics, and weird-but-cool vocals come together in a way that is not only sonically impressive, but also – and this is rare – fun. Taz, Om’Mas, and Shafiq’s unique individual talents, when fused together, marry all the benefits of each man’s classical musical training, extensive production experience, and crazy natural talent. Maybe that’s because, like any good marriage, this one started out with a friendship. Shafiq, who has been bouncing between NY and LA introduced his NY studio partner, Om’Mas, to Taz, whom he had met at their mosque in LA. The guys loved each other’s work and shared a common vision about soul music’s glorious past and where it should go in the future. They became fast friends, and it shows in the music. “That seems to perplex people,” says Om’Mas, “that we live together, work together, and play together.

When I met SA-RA for this interview, I decided to test this friendship and see just how much the fellows had in common. Luckily, these cats are good sports, so they didn’t mind playing along. Remember the old game show, “The Newlywed Game”? Couples would go into separate rooms to answer a series of questions. Then the host would bring them together to judge their compatibility on how well their answers matched. Well, yeah, this is sort of like that, except nobody wins a washer-dryer combo, and nobody gets his booty privileges revoked for showing a national TV audience that he never listens to his wife. Let’s begin.

1) What’s so great about SA-RA?

Taz: “Thus far, this is a group, that embodies…the different eras of creativity for black people, from the Negro spirituals all the way up to, like, drum and bass… all of it… hip-hop, soul music. The fact that we’re doing something to raise the bar creatively, that’s not what’s so great about us, but the great part is that we have a platform to speak and be heard while we’re doing this creative music because music is suffering right now. Music is pretty mundane, cookie-cutter, hit-chase. The fact that we have gotten to this point is a very big accomplishment… Another great things is that we’re free. We’re striving for freedom, and we’re not afraid. We’re not afraid to express ourselves and to charter into unmarked territory to move around in spaces that haven’t been explored yet.”

Shafiq: “I don’t know. We just do our thing.”

Om’Mas: “What appears to be great to people about us is that upon people’s initial experience of us, either through music or fashion or both is that they are experiencing something they have not heard or is somewhat nostalgic.”

2) How did SA-RA sneak into the industry?

Taz: “Business savvy. A lot of artists are not inclined business wise. That’s a big part of how we got this record deal and got distribution and how we got hooked up with Kanye… Hard work.”

Shafiq: “The approach, the attitude, the mentality… how we view ourselves and our approach to making this brand of music and that it can be commercially viable. It’s not that everyday, finger-snapping thing, but we can make that mainstream. The dope shit, as they say.”

Om’Mas: “I’d say 99.9% of it is a direct manifestation of our level of confidence in ourselves and our product and our belief system and what we do. Initially you have to sell your music, and in selling your music you have to exude confidence in order to start the brainwash to get people to believe when they don’t know what to believe.”

3) What are your individual roles within the group?

Taz: “Om’Mas is a technical wizard. His background is in jazz drumming, and he picked up different instruments along the way. And he’s funny as hell. Shafiq is funky. He’s all about the beat. It’s that black, raw, shit. I’m a visionary.”

Om’Mas: “We have this interchangablility that is very unusual… three people that are essentially equals in every right in that we have all been successful producers and business people. Shafiq has this amazing ability to be creative all the time. Taz’ abilities on a social level are just phenomenal. So much of our initial recognition among our peers was directly a subsequent of Taz being out and in people’s face. I’m classically trained, so I bring kind of a structure - this classic old-school mentality of record production by studying the masters.”

Shafiq: “Taz is the true socialite of the group. Om’Mas is the theroist. He is the trained, classical – he came up with jazz musicians in the house. I just build shit.”

4) Will you change the mainstream?

Taz: “Definitely. That was the inspiration for forming this group. The mainstream used to be real good to me, but now I don’t feel that same thing when I listen to music. There’s not a lot of original thinkers out there trying to push the envelope.”

Shafiq: “Take sound. A lot of people use certain keyboards and drum machines, and even rhythmically how they sing, they feel like it has to be formatted the way everything is on the radio. A lot of people aren’t freed up enough to make this kind of music.”

Om’Mas: “We are going to add musicality to a very raw form. Old-school popular songwriting techniques applied to the beat generation.”

5) What is SA-RA trying to give the audience?

Taz: “We’re trying to take them somewhere positive where they can be themselves and be more in tune with their nature.”

Shafiq: “Bringing some consciousness back to the music, but yet people need to feel like they can be free. You have to be yourself.”

Om’Mas: “We’ve got some lessons for them if they want to listen, about empowerment, about succeeding. Whatever brothers and sisters want to do, there’s a way to ensure success.”

6) What artists would appear with you a “Best music of 2006” compilation?

Taz: “Li’l Wayne, Bilal, Kanye, Outkast, D’Angelo… not a lot of people come to mind.”

Shafiq: “Georgia Ann Muldrow, Bilal, Mos Def, Ty and Cory… I’m picky.”

Om’Mas: “I don’t listen to anything that’s out now. I can’t. I don’t have time.”

7) What artists would appear on your G.O.A.T. compilation?

Taz: “Duke Ellington, Willie Strayhorn, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Bill Lee, Afrika Bambaata, Egyptian Lover, Fela.”

Shafiq: “Stevie, Jimi, Sly, George Clinton, Miles, Joni Mitchell, Ricky Lee Jones, Gilberto Gil, George Ben.”

Om’Mas: “Steely Dan, Parliament, Marvin Gaye, Thelonious Monk, Michael Jackson, Sly Stone, Rick James, Prince, Nile Rogers.”

What are you trying to accomplish?

Taz: “Like with this fashion thing. I’m really into fashion. I want people to be able to be themselves and wear what they want, do want they want, and be free.”

Shafiq: “To make dope shit. It’s like Mos Def said the other night, ‘If you’re dope, you’re dope no matter what you do.’”

Om’Mas: “To be the best person I can, to enlighten myself, to stay healthy, to exercise every day. I want to empower my child to be a master of her universe. I want to do the Capitol Hill thing. I definitely want to contribute to this world on a political level and use this money I know I’m about to make for positive things.”

If I can divine the formula for their success from what I learned after hanging out with SA-RA for an hour, it would definitely include a healthy dose of jazz appreciation, an encyclopedic knowledge of music production, a healthy disdain for modern pop music, business savvy, and genuine artistic integrity. It also wouldn’t hurt to have a close-knit, creative team of like-minded individuals who are each about their business without needing to be told. Om’Mas says, “People don’t realize that success, not only is it harder to achieve by yourself, but it’s not as fulfilling if you don’t have brothers with you to help you get there and to share in it with you.”

So the secret ingredient is love? SA-RA seems to think so. Though their answers varied in our little Newlywed Game, these brothers consistently agreed on the fact that they came together to enlighten the people and free them intellectually. The marriage of their talents was inspired by their love of music and their love for their fellow man, and from that bond, the group SA-RA was conceived. The name SA-RA, depending on how you translate it, can mean “child of the most powerful.”

Tags: Sa-Ra