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Outlandish At The Scala, London

• DJ Kayper
• 1 Feb 07, 05:16 PM

I was never too familiar with Outlandish¡¯s music and the first time I ever heard of the group was when the single ¡°°Â²¹±ô´Ç³Ü¡± came out from their debut album ¡°Bread and Barrels of Water".

Yesterday I was lucky enough to witness what the hype was all about and admittedly I was pretty blown away after seeing them perform. I had not been to Scala for quite a few years so I¡¯d forgotten how intimate the venue was which was perfect to see a group like Outlandish. When I got to the venue at 6pm to do my soundcheck there were people queuing already! The doors opened at 7.30pm and the first thing I noticed was a heard of girls rushing to the front. Once I had got the technical issues sorted with my turntables, Bobby and Nihal came on stage to introduce me. I was happy because I got to play some hip hop classics but I wasn¡¯t too sure if the ladies in the crowd were feeling my selection of Tribe Called Quest and Lords of the Underground. So I switched it up to some ¡°Lean Back¡± and they were happy.

After the support act had finished their set it was time to introduce the main act. The band started off and the guys walked out to a hyped up audience. Even though the venue was small it sounded like there were thousands of people in there. At this point I couldn¡¯t see much because everyone that was backstage rushed to the side of the stage and blocked my view! I guess that¡¯s my fault for being short:) I managed to squeeze my way through a few people and finally got to the front. Outlandish were performing their new single ¡°Kom Igen¡±, the first thing that I noticed was the singer on stage wearing a t-shirt that said ¡®J Dilla RIP¡¯. It was good to see Outlandish reppin¡¯ for the late Dilla.

I was amazed at the energy that they had on stage and their interaction with the crowd. This is something that¡¯s missing with a lot of new school artists. It¡¯s great if you can make good music but it¡¯s even better when you can perform it well. The highlight of the performance was the song ¡°´¡¾±³¦³ó²¹¡±, this was the song that they performed after the encore and I think it was the one everyone was waiting for. It¡¯s a cover of the classic tune Cheb Khalid and they performed really well in their own unique way although I think much of the credit for this song has to go to the original artist. My personal highlight was when Waqas broke it down with an intelligent rap accapella. The line that stuck out the most was something along the lines of ¡°music is more powerful than what any politician has to say¡±. Too right!

Overall, it was an inspiring performance from Outlandish and was definitely worth seeing. I had a great time and it looked like everyone else did too. Hopefully we can do it again sometime.
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