interview

15/01/05
brought to you by joe 90

1. hey sa ra, please describe yourselves for the uninitiated.

sa-ra creative partners is a production entity we formed in 2001 with the notion of making music that we personally wanted to hear. sa-ra simply is the 'group/performance' aspect of who we are as individuals and as a company. taz arnold, shafiq husayn & omímas keith comprise the partners/founders of srcp. If you can use your imagination to fathom love, fucking, moneymaking and pure blissfulness you just mitge be able to hang with the sa-ra creative partners! holla!

2. you guys have been producing other peeps for time - how come it's now you choose to step out yourselves?

we made a unanimous decision to be the 'sacrificial lambs' so to speak. in life you sometimes find that the best way to achieve vertical movement is to take matters into your own hands. we want our songs to be heard, we can sing, so why not just go ahead and record. since we record and write all of our songs anyway, the artists that hear our songs usually want them. we want the whole world to sing sa-ra songs. we are creative professionals, artists, as well businessmen, the choice to step out front was only natural for us.

3. if pushed, how would you describe your sound?

our sound is a unique blend of raw & polished material.

straight from the dirt of the ghetto to the gold of the heavens!

from glistening wind chimes to the grittiest of chitterling chops.

4. do the 'big' names you work with come to you for a little experimental flavour?

our music is straight from the imagination of the ages, our songs sounding like no one anyone elseís. That being said, any artist that is coming to us for music is automatically checking for us to get that 'new exquisite shit' if you can dig that!

5. do you do that stuff to pay the bills or does it bring it's own rewards creatively?

actually, the indie stuff is what pays the bills. the 'big name' stuff is less frequent and usually yields high amounts of cash in lump sums.

6. what made you go with ubiquity for the lp?

what made us choose them to do the first 'sa-ra creative partners presents' album was that they were one of the few labels that were willing to commit to a joint venture with our company srcp. on top of the fact that we have complete creative autonomy over all endeavors, we have a terrific business relationship with them. labels like ubiquity are far and few between so when they stepped up to the plate, it looked good on paper and we just made it happen.

7. and what can we expect from that lp?

first and foremost, expect a whole lot of freakin on wax, banging beats, big songs and sexy talkiní. expect to witness the process of transcendence, i.e. being born into an impoverished environment and mastering ones self to create your own heavenly reality for the people of world to see and take part in.

8. any live uk shows next year?

we are sure there will be one or two, but nothing planned right now.

9. what else you fellas currently workin on?

well weíve just been named the new creative heads/vpís of rawkus so we have been very busy searching for talent and strategizing and producing our artists that we have signed to srcp. also we are working with kanye, we produced a song for the black eyed peas which is on the yugioh soundtrack, also common, killa mike, erykah, musiq soul child, j dilla, goapele, medeski, martin & wood, a radiohead cover album. bottom line we are busy!

10. the future's bright, the future's......?

taz -bright as the fiery sun never to be outdone, sa-ra so keen always masters supreme! omímas - clear and evident, success is eminent. shafiq - ìthe future is the unknown about to be knownî

photographs by mark anthony