SOLE-TAPPIN’: New York’s Outasight is just too much funkified fun to pass up. Think Cee-Lo meets Beck, with a 70s soulster’s twist. His latest release, “Never Say Never”, is a clever mix of dance-soul, pop, goofiness and a warm sense of humor. While a lot of rappers are stuck talking about how badass they are, Richard Andrew is playfully self-deprecating on his song “Dizzy”, a track about hitting the bottle, and nights of performing in empty clubs: “And what you gonna do when you don’t blow up / Go throw another show where no one shows up / Drink too much Jameson and have to throw up. / You know what? / You prolly right, /What kinda grown man calls himself Outasight?” Outasight can truly write a lyric, with numerously inventive end-and-internal rhymes that skid all-over the place like a car out of control: “Put words together like I’m playin’ scrabble / Triple word score / Make ya trunk rattle / Any new kicks, yup I got to have those / Dutches we pass those just like with Tabasco / With anything I grub on / This ain’t no love song.” Or what about this bit from “Near the End”, a song about going on a roadtrip with a bunch of women, guns and what sounds like a trusty, weather-worn copy of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”: “Well there’s a right time and a right place / Two technics in a metal case / And a bb gun / Don’t shoot your eye / And Kerouac is in the back / Fill the shelf /And clean the rack / It’s apropos, wat-up bro / We on the go / 95 / Rocking till the wheels fall off the side / Ain’t no rims to spin / To my chagrin / Insomnia / A pack of blues / Coltrane speakers /And Converse shoes.” Note: You can listen to and download his latest record for free at his bandcamp site. — David D. Robbins Jr.
Outasight “Lush Life” (feat. XV)
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