Producer, multi-instrumentalist, and baritone rapper/singer Shafiq Husayn contemporizes and transmutes funk, bossa nova, avant-garde jazz, and Afro-beat, among other inspirations, all through a cosmopolitan hip-hop filter. One of few musicians with bicoastal roots in early hip-hop, he ran with Uncle Jamm's Army and the Zulu Nation before he initiated his production career with Ice-T. As one-third of Sa-Ra, Husayn made progressive material for dozens of artists including Jurassic 5 and Erykah Badu. The same year Sa-Ra issued their second album, Husayn released the equally remarkable solo set Shafiq En' A-Free-Ka (2009). As his group wound down, he continued to work with artists including Robert Glasper, whose Black Radio (2012) won a Grammy. Husayn finally made his full solo return with the wide-scoped The Loop (2019), and four years later followed up with another cosmic set, So Gold (2023).