If you don’t know, now you know. SA-RA Creative Partners is a group of hip-hop producers, record executives, and musicians that came together in the late ’90′s to, quite simply, make good music on their own terms when the rest of hip-hop was into its MTV era and still at the mercy of A&R departments. SA-RA got its roots in the early 1990′s stew of the South Bronx and Los Angeles. Om’Mas Keith, Taz Arnold, and Shafiq Husayn span both coasts and have worked with some of the best talent either have to offer. Before the group was even formed, Husayn learned the ropes with legends such as Ice-T and Lord Finesse, and quickly spotted Om’Mas Keith as an up and coming producer and got him behind the boards with Mobb Deep and Foxy Brown, among others. All it took was a meeting with Taz to set the ball rolling.
With Taz’s Jazz background, Husayn’s depth of experience, and Om’Mas’ raw talent, it wasn’t long before the group got work producing the Jurassic 5, and the experience proved that they were a force to be reckoned with. They then turned to John Legend and Kanye’s G.O.O.D.Music label, while simultaneously working on their own works: the Dark Matter And Pornography Mixtape and The Second Time Around, both classics in their own right. Taking cues from both Parliament Funkadelic and J Dilla, the group is able to fuse together the G-Funk of Dre and Snoop with the glitchy beats that are, in many instances, only emulated by (but never eclipsed by) bigger artists such as Kid Cudi and Kanye himself. They’ve got one foot in Flying Lotus’ backyard and the other in the galactic realms that haven’t been touched since Parliament faded.
Their most recent work is the 2009 Nuclear Evolution: The Age Of Love that was released on Ubiquity Records. It’s the group’s second studio release after their 2007 work The Hollywood Recordings, which was five years in the making. These two albums feature quite the guest list: Talib Kweli, J Dilla, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Pharaohe Monch, and more. Grab their music over on Ubiquity’s site in any physical or electronic format your heart desires. In the meantime, hear what they’re all about:
Agent Orange features Pharaohe Monch, and can be found on SA-RA’s Dark Matter and Pornography Mixtape
“Feel The Bass Rock” is their most recent work with Talib Kweli
Related Posts:
Join us:
