Last week Outlandish showed up at Hard Rock Cafe as VH1’s handpicked and performed for a packed house. It was so packed in fact, that I spent about 30 minutes in line outside frantically waving my VIP passes around but to no avail. Eventually we gave up and went to Shiro for a drink but then luckily my friend from Sony BMG (thank you Arjun) showed up with Outlandish and whisked them (and luckily us) through the kitchen entrance which I had no idea Shiro and HRC share. That was probably the coolest part of the night; that and spotting Sunil and Manna Shetty outside Shiro so I could tell you about it later!
The thing we couldn’t quite figure out (aside from the masks and florescent faux-hawks everyone was wearing) was the HUGE teeny-bopper fan following they evidently have. I mean, I probably love their cover of Khaled’s Aicha as much as the average 17-year-old but it looked like some serious rockstars were in the house that night! I hear they even signed autographs for 45 minutes after the show – go figure. But I bet VH1 and Sony BMG were pretty jazzed about the turn out 🙂
Didjya Know?
Outlandish are a multi-award winning hip-hop group based in Denmark. Formed in 1997, they consist of Isam Bachiri (born in Denmark and of Moroccan background), Waqas Ali Qadri (born in Denmark and of Pakistani background), and Lenny Martinez (born in Honduras and is of Cuban and Honduran descent). All three members are devoutly religious, Isam and Waqas being Muslim, and Lenny being Catholic.
The other song of their’s that I like is called “Guantanamo” and you can hear an old Hindi chorus running through their song “Peelo” which (according to Wikipedia) “made it a smash hit amongst Indians living in the West.”