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He starts by making one thing very clear, Sa-Ra do not use stylists. You don’t need to when it’s all in the family. “My Dad was a very big influence on me. More so with traditional American college leisure or formal wear. He collects old European cars and British Rollsters and all that stuff. So he’s kind of like a 007 type of guy into jazz and what have you. I started dressing myself when I was real young. I would go into the house and get as creative as possible. I would come back out to my parents and say “How does this look?” and they would say “Oh that looks good!” and I’d go back in and come back out, try and do some outlandish shit. I’d be like “What about this?” and they’d be like “Oh that’s cool too.” They really wouldn’t be paying any mind, but I was serious. What I meditated on was I wanted to be the coldest cat with style, period. I wouldn’t say that I’m a fashion person, I’m more of a style person. I feel like fashion is prepackaged style.”

A sense of perspective and originality is essential to succeeding with style argues Taz. Its absence has provided him with a spotlight from an industry too scared to acknowledge what they want to see or what they want to hear. “Marketing is very powerful. Where hip-hop or the urban scene used to be based on how creative you could be. Back in the day if you were a biter, or you were like somebody else? You were discredited as an artist. I’m a student of that. I’m not really doing anything so much different than people were doing like say 20 years ago before that. In the ‘90s? Look at Malcolm McLaren, look at Madonna when she first came out. Then look at me. Look at Basquiat. Check it out. I’m not trying to be like Basquiat or anybody else, but the fact that they were original and just did what the fuck they wanted to do? They used their body as a canvas to express what they felt. That’s what’s happening, that’s dope!”

While music and fashion have always been very accommodating bedfellows, Taz possesses grand visions for their symbiotic relationship in the future. “If you are into style and into visual art? The shit that I’m about to do is going to be very nice. [It’s] going to be done with the visual aspect of the art, meaning performance and dress and creating new outfits for humans on this planet, for the future. You are going to see my record being distributed at your local clothing store, with a collaboration with probably one of your local shops. It’s a whole string of things that I’ve been sitting on for the past couple of years, and I’ve been harnessing waiting for the right time.”

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