Outasight Interview

SC: How ya doin? Let everyone know who you are!

Outasight: Yo wuddup, hey its Outasight… Hi

SC: How old are you?

Outasight: I am 24 yrs old

SC: Where did your name “Outasight” come from?

Outasight: It originates from friends from down town. I was living in lower east side & I moved back home to Yonkers. I came back like 6mths later. And originally my MC name was Out Sight. Basically they were like Out Sight, Fuck it, you Outasight b/c I was mad shady. So I just picked that up like 5yrs ago that name & it kind stuck with me because I’m all over, I guess

SC: you just mentioned that you’re from Yonkers. I’m not really familiar wit that area, but I know it’s past the Bronx, Uptown. Was it difficult for you living in that neighborhood? I mean were there a lot of white people there?

Outasight: (laughs) were there a lot white people there? My neighborhood was very mixed, but it was suburbia. Definitely was. I mean my whole life I grew up in apartment buildings. I’ve never lived in a house my entire life. So you know its suburban but definitely urban as well. It’s cool. I never ran into any trouble, but I mean its very cool because my neighborhood is contingent of friends who went to college and are working jobs and then, unfortunately there’s other people that I grew up with who in jail, in trouble, or were on the block, so its very mixed.

SC: How would u describe your style musically?

Outasight: I’d consider it soul music really, but hip-hop orientated. I just kind of try to continue to take things to a new place when it comes to this music. Really it’s just me it comes from various influences I grew up listening to a lot of different stuff so I just kind of put it all out there.

Sc: What made you decide to be a recording artist?

Outasight: Umm Girls…yeah. I mean that’s where it all starts. I think I started playing in band at like the age of 13 so, it was all about impressing chicks. Then, as you get older it becomes more and more about being creative and the art form itself. Originally I wanted to be a musician because of girls.

SC: Now, I read that your dad was a guitarist. What instruments did u play?

Outasight: Well he gave me a guitar when I was like 9 but he’s the type of dude that will give you a guitar and he didn’t want to teach me how to play because he was one of those OG mother fuckers. That would be like, “Play it, I don’t care, play it.” So I picked up the guitar from a young age, but I played it on and off but really I was always a singer, you know. Sing and rap from the get. I remember singing and writing rhymes since I was like 9 or 10 years old, so that was my shit

SC: Funny, that was my next question. What is the response on people’s faces when they find you’re white, you rap, and you sing? What is that like?

Outasight: Oh wow! I was saying to Print 2day, we were in a cipher at Brooklyn college radio. The shock factor is worth it all almost, it’s always a surprise. I’ve been in ciphers all over this planet in some hoods, in nice places, and people get use to me, but when you don’t know me at first its just really a good shock factor and that works in my favor to be honest because I can roll up rocking a tie and maybe looking kind of corny to some people but I get right in your face with it and really have no fear with that shit so its funny as hell to be honest.

SC: Do your parents support your career?

Outasight: Yeah, my parents are mad cool, but they definitely want me to go to college and take a more routine route, to be honest but something much more ordinary, but they’re fans, they’re cool.

SC: This summer you performed at the Brooklyn hip-hop festival.

Outasight: Thanks Print.

SC: You performed on the same stage as Ghostface, Mad Skillz, Consequence, Chubb Rock, and Fat Joe. How was that? What was that feeling like?

Outasight: It was an incredible feeling. I thank Print for giving me an opportunity to do that. Its just that its such a grind and you try so hard to make progress. Just to be on the same stage with people you’ve been listening to for years feels like you’re finally making progress, you’re finally getting somewhere, so I enjoyed it immensely. I went to the festival before, so now being able to perform at it, it felt like it was the next step in the evolution. It was dope.

SC: You had an EP come out titled, “Employee of the Year.” I listened to it and its pretty dope, and your swag kind of sounds like Talib/Maroon 5, which I’m fans of both of them. Are you fans of them?

Outasight: Yeah I’m fans of them. It’s funny because I get a lot of different comparisons. I’ve gotten that I flow like Kanye. My music is a direct input from all the things I listen to. Both Maroon 5 and Talib Kwali are both really dope and I take it as a compliment because I notice recently as I get more press from the music especially when an artist is just coming up people want to try and build a comparison just so there’s some sort of understanding especially when if comes to something that hasn’t been seen before such as artists like myself. It’s kind of an original style whether u like it or not. I take it as a compliment really because that means that people actually care enough to go out there and say yeah it’s kind of this mix.

SC: Who are some of the people you have to thank that contributed to, “Employee of the Year?”

Outasight: Oh wow, I got to give mad props to show up studio, and dre bonds those people helped me out. Mislene, and all his homies, Hobbs over at think tank. Print for pushing me and those people helped the whole idea and scheme come together. On the creative side, my beat makers are all dope.



SC: I’m going to throw a couple of names at you besides Eminem.

SC: Vanilla Ice!

Outasight: Oh gosh

SC: Everlast!

Outasight: Oh boy!

SC: Marky Mark

Outasight: Alright
SC: Were all white rappers with short term music careers.

Outasight: yea definitely

SC: My question for you is, what are you going to bring to the industry to make your career as full term as you possibly can?

Outasight: Well you can go back down that list; each one of those artists was a gimmick. Each one of those artist was just there to infiltrate commercial music, and they did their part. Vanilla Ice was “ice, ice baby, “and Marky Mark was that other shit.

SC: “Good Vibrations,” ”Everlast; “Jump Around”

Outasight: Exactly, even though Everlast did keep coming out with records he had started singing and stuff, regardless these people were commercial people, not really about themselves, you know. They were just made up. You see Mark Wahlberg (Marky Mark) ended up being himself and now he’s a very successful actor. Vanilla Ice never found an identity because he lied about his past from the get, so no one ever gave him a chance, but yet still people are infatuated with him on some level, and Everlast people might still like him, I don’t know. For me personally, all I know is that what I do is myself, you know, it’s real. I don’t hide anything, I don’t pull any punches, it just comes down to just me enjoying the music that I love to do, that I love to listen to so it’s a natural extension of it. It’s just another part of my character, my personality when I do music, when I perform live. That’s why I think I can last because it’s real.

SC: If you weren’t a recording artist today, what do you think you would be doing? Where would Outasight be right now?

Outasight: I’d be a writer. I studied creative writing. I love to write and it’s something I’d love to do on the side. Poetry, short story, & fiction. I was going to go to George Washington University to do creative writing, but I just chose to follow music instead. So here I am.

SC: I remember you traveled and performed in London, what was that experience like?

Outasight: Well the first time was culture shock just straight up, we were in some thorough ass clubs, and we got to really chill with the British and the English youth, really the black youth. You really got a sense of their culture, and what was really going on in the streets there. The first trip was real crazy. There was a lot of anger penting up on the street. The second time we kind of got on our Hollywood shit with the shows we were doing, but it was still kind of crazy because we were living piss poor style, out of the city so its just kind of wild. It was very adventurous, but it was mad fun, and the one thing I can say about the music seen itself was so much more eclectic. People are so much more open to different styles of music, but the pop charts were filled with different kinds of music. People really took a feeling to us because what we are doing is dope and being from New York always helps.

SC: What was the first song that you remember hearing as a child that caught your attention?

Outasight: Wow, let me think about this. The first song ever that I remember was probably Stevie Wonder, “Sunshine of My Life.” My mom always played Stevie Wonder, and my dad was always bumping Led Zeplin, so it was one or the other definitely. I was like 5 years old.

SC: One a personal note…

Outasight: Uh oh!

SC: What’s Outasight like at home? I want to know how you get comfortable when you get home. Do you take off your sneakers, walk around in your boxers, like what do you do?

Outasight: I chill. Most of the time, I’m listening to music on my computer, or just chilling. I don’t really watch TV or anything. I wake up in the morning. I write rhymes. I have to go to work. I’m a mad simple person. I like to read books, and I study art and things of that nature. I’m kind of corny, maybe a little boring to some people.
SC: When you open your refrigerator, what’s the first thing you grab out of there to eat or to drink?

Outasight: You my fridge is mad empty. I got a Brita water thing, and right now that is about it. I got some ketchup. I usually eat out like every day, which I should stop doing, but I should go food shopping, but I usually have water and beer in my fridge. That’s about it. Real bachelor pad style.

SC: What’s your favorite sports team?

Outasight: The New York Knicks unfortunately. Im a big Knicks fan, big basketball fan. The Knicks are terrible, which does not make the situation any better.
SC: If you were president, what’s the first thing you’d do?

Outasight: Wooooooooow! If I was president the first thing I would do is get our mother fucking boys out of Iraq, word to mother, because I actually have two friends of mine who are Marines and are currently stationed in Iraq, and its time to end the war. I don’t want to sound cliché like every body else, but lets get our homies home nah mean.

SC: Underground Cosigns?

Outasight: I’m cosigning my homie Print, Dante Lewis, Dre Bond, TriState, Othello

SC: Street Cosigns?

Outasight: Right now I was feeling the little brother CD. It was nice. Kanye and Common’s albums were dope. I feel like it was a good year for hip-hop. Kwali’s was dope. I feel like it was the best hip-hop album of the year. Marvin Gaye, I always cosign Marvin Gaye.




www.myspace.com/iamoutasight