SA-RA Creative Partners 'Nuclear Evolution The Age Of Love' album

The SA-RA Creative Partners™ is a trio of accomplished musicians, producers and trendsetters, comprised of Om'Mas Keith, Taz Arnold and Shafiq Husayn. On their musical quest they have dazzled with amazing productions, collections, mixes and remixes. But now, for the first time, with Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love, they deliver a completely new and original album. Built from scratch, it’s a truly coherent and innovative body of work. Musical, adventurous, and even more evolved than anything they’ve done before, Nuclear Evolution also shows a controlled, polished, and in-the-pocket side to their work. It is an album on which SRCP™ shine as the innovative musical force they promised to be, ever since the cult hit “Glorious” first shattered bass bins and minds worldwide.

Whether on the otherworldly opus “Love Czars,” the bombastic soul of “I Swear,” or twisted tales of drug-fueled-freaks on “Traffika,” Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love blends next-level production with a unique and unconstrained blend of street wit, dirty-sex talk, tall stories, and intergalactic future sounds, and is set to become essential listening for the summer of 2009.

It’s an over-used phrase that a band has a unique sound. But The SA-RA Creative Partners use their three minds to combine and make something that is always new, something twisted, a sound not heard before. Their music is soulful, but not limited by the neo soul tag. They make hip hop, but of the bugged-out and other-worldly kind. Tracks are instantly catchy, but edgy and not commercial. According to the list of high-profile artists requesting their production services their sound has an infectious global spread and appeal. Most recently SRCP have been making their mystical magical soulful productions for Erykah Badu. Serving as her associate producers, they wrote, appeared, and produced on seven of the tracks from her critically acclaimed 2008 New Amerykah album. She returns the favor with a guest appearance on “Dirty Beauty” on Nuclear Evolution. Other collaborators that SRCP have worked with include Pharoahe Monche (on the massive “Agent Orange” track), John Legend, Black Eyed Peas, Talib Kweli, J Dilla, Fonzworth Bentley, Heavy D, Common, Iggy Pop, Herbie Hancock, Dr. Dre, Jill Scott, and Jurassic 5.

Balancing the call to make music for other people with working as the SRCP unit (and working their solo projects,) has been quite a feat. “We find time because we love doing this,” explains Husayn. “We are drawn closer to Nirvana, with each release and creative statement. As for our own stuff, it is all an extension of our will to create things from out of the mind,” he adds.

Helping SRCP realize their potential on Nuclear Evolution is a crew of friends and co-conspirators that includes legends like soul chanteuse Erykah Badu, and saxophonist Gary Bartz with his quartet. The album also features up-and-coming talent like Debi Nova, Rozzie Daime, Noni Lamar, Erika Rose, Brook D’leau of J*Davey, Joseph Liemberg, Fenetta Lowe & Jimetta Rose. Easy to like, but difficult to pigeon hole, the album oozes equal parts jazz, soul, pop, funk, and hip-hop. The eclectic collection of productions bounces from the sticky and bubbly soul of “Gemini’s Rising”, to the string laden bump of “He Say She Say,” and the outer-worldly bossa nova of “Spacefruit.”

Sticking together through more than their fair share of highs and lows, the group channeled their collective energies to create what is arguably their best work to date. “There is something powerful about the Number 3. A triangle is architectures most structurally sound shape,” explains Keith. “And there is a sense of brotherhood among us, the strong sense of purpose we all share in our will to cleanse the proverbial palette of music!” he adds. Having won the BBC Radio 1s’ “John Peel Play More Jazz Award” at the end of 2004, the band embarked on a fruitful relationship with mega star Kanye West. They signed a major recording deal with his GOOD Music Label, then distributed by Sony. Their plan was to release their Black Fuzz album through Sony Urban and follow-up with the Ubiquity album. However, as with the best made plans (especially those involving major labels,) Black Fuzz has yet to be released. After much pressure from fans and executives at Babygrande records, SRCP opted to release a one-off project entitled The Hollywood Recordings, an album of new and previously released material. In 2006 rumors floated on the internet that the group had disbanded. An exclusive interview with Shafiq Husayn, on okayplayer.com, squashed that rumor. The band is alive and well, and they still maintain a strong relationship with West, recently appearing in a video with him, Andre 3000, and Fonzworth Bentley.

Outside of SRCP, the members are all working on multiple projects. Arnold has a fashion company called ti$a consulting, and is working on collections and collaborations with Kanye West and his Pastelle Clothing line. He is also preparing to launch the ti$a x mcm and ti$a x phenomenon lines this summer. Husayn is working on a full-length album called Shafiq En’ A-Free-Ka, (already garnering causing a buzz), plus the new Erykah Badu album and a few songs on Bilal’s new album, and the new Sleepy Brown album (featuring George Clinton.) Keith is currently producing and writing for P. Diddy’s upcoming album (Last Train to Paris), and will co-star in a major network reality television show. He’s also been serving as MD for rapper Jim Jones, lecturing with the Red Bull Music Academy, managing fresh musical talent, and pursuing his acting/voice-over career. “As always, overseeing The SA-RA family of companies continues to be a top priority!” he says.

biography
Many artists talk about going to the proverbial “next level.” The Sa-Ra Creative Partners -- Om’Mas Keith, Taz Arnold, and Shafiq Husayn -- simply exist there. They just are beyond what everyone else is doing creatively. That’s because the Los Angeles/New York-based collective creates for more than the act of making music. Sa-Ra -- whose disparate resume includes production work with and for Dr. Dre, Kanye West, John Legend, Jurassic 5, Ice-T, Lord Finesse -- creates for the universe. It’s Afro Magnetic Electronic Spiritualism.

“Sa-Ra is a magical trio,” says Taz, a proud citizen of the globe who was raised in South Central Los Angeles. “We’re three lords from different aspects of the universe, different walks of life, here to put something magical together for the people.”

Adds Om’Mas: “People have come to expect and associate Sa-Ra with that which is overtly male, sexual, free. Anything that you’re going to see that’s going to be free, colorful, majestic, grand, magic, spiritual -- all of those are the terminologies that we associate with our brand. In the coming years, it won’t be as much about the faces of Sa-Ra, the men of Sa-Ra. We’re the founders, owners and the creators of something, but at that point, the brand takes on a life of its own.”

The recipients of a 2+ year set up as part of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint, the Sa-Ra Creative Partners finally see the light with the May release of The Hollywood Recordings on renowned indie Babygrande Records, the prequel to their forthcoming major label album debut. It’s a collection Sa-Ra says will be full of surprises and that should put to rest the rumors circulating that the trio was disbanding. Indeed, contrary to popular speculation, the trio is very much united, having emerged unscathed from the perilous depths of an ever shifting major label landscape. There is no tension within the group and Sa-Ra moves forward with its members pursuing individual as well as collective goals.

As all members will attest, The Hollywood Recordings defies categorization and represents Sa-Ra’s complete vision, which encompasses more than just music.

“We take the best of all doctrines, all the practices, all sciences and have developed our own style,” Om’Mas explains. “That’s where we’re at. We’re very eclectic because, unlike many people, we’ve been able to identify that with which is best of all systems -- belief, monetary -- and take piece by piece to develop this master blueprint. It’s proven to be successful.”

It’s a blueprint that has been brewing for close to two decades. A product of South Central Los Angeles and the South Bronx, Shafiq cut his teeth producing with Ice-T and Lord Finesse. He met a teen-age Om’Mas while working in New York. Om’Mas was establishing himself as a quality mixer and engineer for a host of talent, including Ice-T, Foxy Brown, Mobb Deep and Jam Master Jay. While meeting with fellow South Central Los Angeles-based Taz in 1989, Shafiq realized that the three could make magic together, musical and otherwise.

By 2001, the three came together formally as Sa-Ra, meaning “offspring of the most powerful energy in the universe;” the name also means “children of the cosmos.” With a variety of talent to draw from -- the members were clearly established in the music industry before uniting -- they focus on Om’Mas’ business acumen and his jazz background, Taz’s natural born winning attitude and street style as a “supreme visionary” and Shafiq’s deep resume and his exemplary talents as a rapper, singer, producer and songwriter (facets in which all three members indeed excel).

The power didn’t take long to manifest. Sa-Ra’s big break as a unit came when they landed work with Jurassic 5 soon after joining forces. The experience taught them that they had the talent, resources and vision to become a force on any level they chose to pursue.

“It initiated togetherness, which was breaking bread as a unit,” Taz explains. “That jumpstarted the cohesiveness that it would take to form the group eventually.”

The group’s subsequent work with John Legend, Kanye West (they were signed to his G.O.O.D.Music label before it was absorbed into Sony Music and they left the imprint) and others was accompanied by Sa-Ra releases: the Dark Matter And Pornography Mixtape and The Second Time Around. All of Sa-Ra’s work is marked by a connection to your soul, your being. It’s an intangible link to your inner self, making their output indispensable. It is something that cannot be ignored, as it cuts to the core of existence.

Sa-Ra’s music works well with how the group members see themselves. In life, you have victims, heroes, aggressors and the like. Sa-Ra are among the few heroes, and their music is a reflection of that. That’s why it contains a deeper meaning, a real purpose. After all, “I am from this world,” Taz explains, “but not of this world.”

So, if Sa-Ra’s music is too advanced, too spiritual, too heavy, don’t worry. It makes sense. It is a continuation of the work of music’s most significant artists.

“You look at James Brown, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, Parliament -- all of the originals, the Gs of whatever they did -- people didn’t get it at first,” Shafiq says. “It wasn’t until they made it cool. Then, when they made it cool, everybody was doing it. Our job is to make history, not to entertain. Our job is to change, add and contribute to what the greats have already contributed.”

If you can’t tell, Sa-Ra is well on that path.

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SA-RA Creative Partners - Nuclear Evolution The Age Of Love