---

---

Sa-Ra Creative Partners

Ubiquity, Los Angeles, USA

Om'Mas Keith was born as the fourth generation of a musical family - his great-grandfather was a copyist for George Gershwin, his mother was a reputable jazz singer. Tutored by people such as Max Roach and Yusef Lateef at the University of Massachusetts, he then started working in production mixing records for Ice T and people like Foxy Brown and Mobb Deep before winding up with Jam Master Jay and as a staff producer for Suave House. In 2000, Om'Mas got a call from his friends Shafiq Husayn and Taz Arnold, who had both moved out to L.A., and they convinced him that the time was right to form a super-friends music collective. Taz had been working as a consultant on albums like Dre's 2001, while Shafiq had carried records for Jazzy Jay and Afrika Bambaataa, before lacing beats for people like Lord Finesse and Ice T. As SA-RA Creative Partners they soon grew into the hip hop industry's best kept secret, getting the praises from everybody from Kanye to Erykah. With influences as diverse as Giorgio Moroder, Steely Dan, Funkadelic, Ornette Coleman and R.E.M., they're also 'children of the beat generation', along with people like Pete Rock, Jay Dee, Q-Tip, and Madlib. On top of this heady mixture, they add sweet vocal harmonies and a spacey fusion flavour all their own. Que Sa-Ra, Sa-Ra... 

Share This Lecture: