The Revivalist

Divine Science and Words of Wisdom with Shafiq Husayn

Though one of the less audacious and visible innovators of the future Soul renaissance, Shafiq Husayn has proven throughout his work with Sa-Ra, his recent production work for Erykah Badu and Bilal, and now with his solo career, that he is one of the most relevant and forward thinking masters of sound infusion in our technological age. Husayn sits down with The Revivalist to talk about how all worldly influences are fair game for inspiring music making—from his spiritual orientations, and ancient wisdoms—spanning from sacred geometry, to the Indian/Moorish origins of the game of Chess.

Do you think mainstream media outlets have a real understanding of your music, whether it be your solo album Shafiq En’ A-Free-Ka or your work with Sa-Ra?

That’s a great question because, once again, we’re always talking about the diehards. The diehards are the ones that, regardless of what’s going on in the music industry, or whatever is going on socially, don’t stop doing what they are doing. You take that thing— that desire, and you take steps towards that and try to actualize that. I come up from an era of music where there wasn’t no drum machines, and it was hip-hop. Then turntables, and the little drum machines started coming around. You start sampling a snare here, and ride the sample. You’re dealing with basically whatever you had to work with. Now it’s so wide open, it’s so many different formats. We’re talking about Appleton, Serrato—infinite things to tap into to express creativity right now.

There are those ones that are never really worried. They always feel like that time slot will open up for them. It’s going to be a time when this is going to be dope. You keep working on it. Stay ready so you can get ready. The platform for this type of music usually comes when one of those producer artists works with a major artist.When I’m talking about major artists, I’m talking about Puffy, Beyonce—the ones that are in the mainstream turn around and get produced by Flying Lotus or Daedelus, you know what I mean? That’s when you’ll see the new thing switch over. It usually takes an artist like that to put it at the forefront and then become mainstream.

W.E.B. Du Bois once spoke about how art is wed to politics upon conception. Do you believe that all art is political?

I think by default it is a political statement because anytime that you do something that is against the grain, or against the populace or what the masses are doing, you are considered going astray or being opposite or adverse. Take the word antisocial. People think of antisocial as a negative connotation. Antisocial to me is just not running with the masses, society, doing what everybody else is doing, and being original.

Sa-Ra, Shafiq, Taz Arnold, Om’Mas (Sa-Ra)—we don’t have to turn that on. What I have on right now I would wear that on stage. I wouldn’t have to mask it or dress it up or turn into this person, because I’m accustomed to being comfortable with myself. That’s the music that most people should aspire to, instead of really trying to conform. Antisocial is cool.

The synergy of Sa-Ra is so unique. How did Sa-Ra form?

You haven’t heard the story? We are three lords. Out of the darkness three lords arrived. One from one particular universe, another one from another particular universe and somewhere else to come down to earth to manifest the spirit of unity and showing how life really works. Plants, cherub, angel, all of these are particular parts of creation. They all work cohesively together. You know what I mean? It’s the ecosystem. If the ox doesn’t eat particular grass, and defecates, and a particular bird or beetle buries itself in that dung, to reproduce a butterfly, then none of that will work right. That’s the math. It works like that. Sa-Ra was smart enough to be in tune with that type of working relationship to synergize on that.

A publication once refused to review a Sa-Ra album because they deemed it “not hip-hop.” Can you speak on that?

I have a thing with people taking ancient concepts and putting modern day terminology, and making it seem like that modern day terminology that is modern is the definition. Prime example, the word Black. They call us Black people. 1779 to 1865 was when slavery was legal in the United States. Prior to that, our people was known as Moors. We had our nationality stripped from us, placed the mark as Negro, from the Latin word Negro, the Greek word Necros, which means dead. “Negros” was put on us. From 1865-1960s were when we were known as “colored peoples.” 1960s we became known as Black people—mid 1960s with the whole Civil Rights thing. 1980s we were known as what, Afro-Americans? 90s was African Americans. Still no nationality. So my question is, why would you take an ancient concept and try to place new terminology on it? Negro, colored and Black are all still names that delude to slavery, no matter how you want to package it up today. It’s still the same thing as what it was when it was instituted, you know? The truth of the matter is that it happened. That terminology that y’all try to define it now does not fit from what it started out.

Same thing with hip-hop. Hip-hop started out a certain way. There was no such thing as rap music. Hip-hop was the culture itself. There was no such thing as a hip-hop record. It was a Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, or James Brown album. That’s what made hip-hop. For ones to take the fragmented parts of it and say “that’s hip-hop”, that’s not hip-hop. Now you’re doing what we’re just talking about. Now you’re redefining terminologies that were already laid down, regardless of what ones may think.

Take once again the word Black. Black was, “Black man,” “I’m a black man.” Black man is a dead man. Regardless of whatever you may feel, a sentiment that you connected with it in this day and age. Black means dead according to science. According to science it means death, no light. Light only comes from light. Life and light are synonymous. It’s the opposite of darkness or blackness.

One should never address themselves of something they are not. One other thing, when did the adjective turn into the actual noun? A person? An adjective describes a noun. We would say “this beautiful building”—you wouldn’t call the building “the beautiful.” No. That’s the adjective describing what the noun is, what the building is looking like. I’m not black. My hair is black, my shoes are black. It’s not hip-hop. It’s not rap music. Hip-hop is beats, rhyming, graffiti, break dancing, DJing, style of dress. That’s hip-hop. Ones need to really not separate that.

I’m seeing albums that are in the hip-hop category that are not completely “hip-hop” albums. What do you call an Andre 3000 album? Are you going to say that Andre is not hip-hop?

Why do we persist in assigning music to these strict categories?

Journalism. See it’s going back to that thing of trying to redefine them. I produced the OG album. I never sat in the studio with Ice T, and we never said we were making “gangsta music.” The journalist said it was gangsta music. We call it hip-hop in the studio. When it came out—and the FBI and all of them—when they finally got a hold of all of that stuff, they the ones that started taking the terminology that the press, the journalist put down. They are the ones that redefined the music, you know?

Everything that you have spoken about is exactly what I want readers to get out of this whole musical lineage. It’s really about personal experiences. That’s what makes up the story of all of this.

That is the story. That’s 100% the story. For one to really think about hip-hop, the hip-hop they talk about is culture. So your culture is from your heritage, your heritage is—basically just listen to it. Heritage and inheritance are synonymous. Your nationality, the word nationality comes from nature. Nature means who you naturally are, the said nature of your forefathers and your foremothers. So each nation had it’s own creed and principals that went with, but they all work together once they were in contact with each other. Things that came along in that culture that you inherited, which brought your heritage, style of dress, style of music, style of food, what you eat, the dialects, the arts—all of that came with it. For one to abandon that? Well, yeah, that’s like one abandoning his creed and principals of his forefathers and foremothers.

All us people historically have always suffered from slavery. No matter what culture, just check the history. Anybody that dishonored their forefathers or mothers in such a way that they do not keep up with the measure or the health of standard, or the charge that they lay down, always suffered slavery. So we can liken this right now in the music industry, ‘cause you have the ones that come in a law or the infinite spirit, whatever name you want to put on it is infinite.

What do you get your inspiration from in terms of sampling?

Any sound source. It can be riding in a car listening to Om’Mas say, “you hear this little part right now?” He might not actually sample it, but sample the tonality of it. We go into the studio and start messing with synthesizers or whatever sound source. We’ll remember things like, “Remember when we were driving and that high pitched sound? You know, it was cutting through the wind blowing through some steel drum” It’s like white noise, and next thing you know—that’s the song. You’re actually trying to do it. Whatever you remember, you try to actually put it in the track. Also, finding old funny drum machines. We were in the studio with the stems looking for a high hat. I was like, “I can do that with my mouth.” And then we went in and did the whole vocal percussion backdrop with my mouth. Anything that will work and fit and make sense. I think that’s what people enjoy about Sa-Ra.

Were you brought up around musicians? What instruments do you play?

I play drums, keys, I’m learning the trumpet right now, and play the percussions. Other little stuff, I’m learning guitar, bass, I play a lot of different things. There were no musicians in my family.

What was the first instrument that you really worked with?

I bought a synthesizer [Roland] SH-101 in 1992.

What inspired your pursuit of music?

Listening to all the dope records we were talking about, we try to reproduce the sounds. There is a limitation when you go with samples. No matter how ill you put them together, you still have to incorporate other things in it too, cause that stuff that you sampled was made with all of that stuff. I think that’s another thing people like about Sa-Ra, because the approach is from the record that we actually listened to.

Did you have musicians in your immediate family?

Not that I know of. Not in my immediate household. Music lovers absolutely. My grandma, my mom’s mom from the islands used to have a turntable in the kitchen in the hallways. I would be a little boy sitting there watching every record that would go on. My dad, without even knowing him—he used to carry 45 dominos records in his bag wherever he went to. I was doing that in high school. I was the one that was DJing the 6^th grade Easter party, or the Christmas break party in the classroom. And then there’s my mom. My mom put me up on the Gil Scott-Heron, and Roy Ayers music that was in her record collection.

What are 3 of your ultimate albums that you would recommend?

Any in the Stevie Wonder collection. From Music in My Mind, all the way to Songs In the Key of Life. Secret Life of Plants, that’s a dope album too. They had experimental synthesizers, and were concept albums. Through that you’re dealing with ecology. There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Sly Stone. Gotta get that, textures and really futuristic with the use of drum machines and live drums. You can hear Sly playing with the sounds, you can hear that sensibility, and how it affects people when it’s playing. You wouldn’t play the same thing on a Rhodes as you would play on a baby grand piano. You wouldn’t play it the same way cause it just sounds different. It’ll make the person who plays it play a different way. You can hear it on that album. My third album, I love the Beatles. I would just say get The Beatles Anthology, Greatest Hits. I listen to those three all of the time.

I understand that you have studied martial arts. What forms do you practice?

There’s an ancient Egyptian, Kemetic, Southern Indian, Dravidian style. It is one of the original styles. Actually, the brother taught about the first 12 animal styles to the Shaolin temple is from this particular region. In that system you’ll see basically the roots of all that: ground fighting, stand up fighting, the white crane systems, sweeps, throws, locks, take downs, pressure points. It’s all in there, and the spiritual aspect too. People think that martial arts is only just a physical application. It actually developed out of the spiritual demonstration first, and then manifested physically.

You also play chess right? Do you see yourself as a strategist?

Yeah, all of that works hand in hand. You have to study the history of Chess starting from Chaturanga in ancient India where it started from. It was brought up into Spain by the Moors around the 14^th/15^th century when Queen Isabella and the rest of Europe were kicking The Moors out of Europe. She actually changed the rules of the game. She’s the one who instituted the Queen movement in chess, the free move. The Queen used to be an advisor. He used to move one space just like the King. Isabella stepped in and gave the Queen free reign. Think about the Knight. The Knight in chess moves in an L shape. L is really an angel. Angels move in angles. Angel and angles. The Bishop moves in the diagonal. This is divine science, the divine triangle. Our forefathers built Alhamber is Seville and Cordoba and all of these places in Spain, all of them with this Moorish architect they were influenced by this particular triangle—the divine triangle—which is the principal of nine. Size and shapes are still dealing with the numeration of 9 and the 9 cycle. 9 represents completion. 9 is really a circle on top of a plane when you lay it flat. Tips it to the other side and it starts all over again.

I see that you are really into shape symbolism. What are the teachings behind that?

Science is symbols of the conscious mind you know. Everything has a meaning. Do not think that ones who made a logo for their company just did so unmindfully. They didn’t just put it together. Everything has a meaning. Everything. Car shapes, colors, people picking designs or the type of font. Everything. Even the words. There are no words on the planet that are just put together randomly or of coincidence. All of this is divine intelligence. Get The Book of Signs and Symbols. It’s a signs, symbols, numerology book. Study your name, all of the vowels in your name. Study your birthday, what time you came in. Study your astrology. Do it in Chinese. It’s all over the planet. Study self. Study yourself, that’s what you’re here for. The people you come in contact with. The animals that come around you. Read the animal totem. Any bugs that come around you—insects that you keep seeing. Read up on it. It’s being sent to you for a certain reason, so are people that you are coming in contact with. You might think it might be beauty, or what people think is beauty, or it might be ugly. Science it up and read why you dealt with that particular person, and it will teach you a lot about yourself.

Interview by Boyuan Gao

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 23rd, 2010 at 11:31 pm. It is filed under Features, Interviews, Uncategorized and tagged with sa-ra, shafiq husayn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.