Every so often a new artist comes along with a sound so innovative, they are able to help reshape the barriers that confine mainstream music. Meet Outasight, the Yonkers, New York bred musician who brilliantly weaves together the cadenced sounds of popular hip-hop and indie rock with the poignant sensibility of classic pop and soul music to create a fresh, new sound that is all his own. “People are conditioned to see certain images for different genres of music,” says the 27 year-old songwriter. “So if something looks or sounds out of the norm, it’s more difficult to understand at first.”
Growing up an only child in the suburbs of New York City, Outasight’s parents encouraged his insatiable love for making music from a very young age. When he was 8 yearsold, he taught himself to write songs on a guitar passed down from his father. “I was surrounded by thousands of records as a kid,” says Outasight who grew up emulating the diverse sounds he was surrounded by all his life. “I listened to a lot of classic rock, and pop, like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and also soul artists like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. My friends and I would form bands and practice in someone’s basement and then I would go to school and write raps and spit raps on the playground. They were like duel personalities in a sense.”
During his junior year of high school, Outasight started venturing into the city, seeking out open mics where he was able to fine tune his own material in front of live audiences. “I used to perform a lot in Brooklyn at a place called Sputnik,” says Outasight. “It would be a very diverse crowd and I would rap and start singing and they would be like, what the hell is going on right now? Who is this White kid acting all crazy? But there were always people that liked it so I always took any type of acceptance as the fuel to go further.” After performing in the big city for a couple of years, the resourceful young artist started to gain confidence and create some extremely valuable music industry connections. He toyed with the idea of going to college but after taking classes on and off for close to five years, Outasight realized it was foolish not to capitalize on the name he had created for himself in the City’s burgeoning independent music scene.
In 2006, he decided to drop out of college for good and pursue music full time. The following year, he released a mixtape called Employee Of The Year with the help of his friend and business partner Dre Bond. The two started a new company to help promote Outasight appropriately named Daily Grind Music. After promoting the tape on Myspace and up and coming music blogs, Outasight and Daily Grind released his second project, Radio New York in June of ’08 which was featured on the Myspace Home page for three consecutive days—a tremendous feat for any new, unsigned artist. “The amount of people that I got exposed to was incredible,” says Outasight. “We were getting like 50 thousand plays a day! Dre and I made a video for one of the mixtape’s songs, ‘Good Evening’ that fall we got the video on MTV after winning the MTVU Freshman competition.”
In March of 2009, Outasight released his third mixtape, From There To Here, with world renowned hip-hop DJ Mick Boogie and a month later was asked to open for Ryan Leslie at NYC’s SOB’s. After winning over the packed house with his live show, Outasight’s manager, Norman “Storm” Bell of Purfek Storm Management, secured a meeting with Asylum Records CEO Todd Moscowitz who was instantly taken by the multi-talented MC’s growing body of work. That October, Outasight signed a deal with Asylum. Soon after his signing, Outasight released his latest mixtape Further. The project was sponsored by LRG clothing and was his most successful release to date, garnering over a hundred thousand downloads and counting. Due to its overwhelming popularity, Asylum is set to release Further as an EP exclusively on ITunes in March 2010 while Outasight continues to craft his first full length commercial release, the aptly titled, From Here to Eternity. “The concept behind my album is one person’s quest from the present moment to being timeless,” he says, “It’s something that lives way beyond me, it’s about the quest.”
On August 17th, 2010, Outasight released his latest mixtape, Never Say Never, again to much critical acclaim.
Better Late Than Never
Outasight Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The only reason I did ‘cause I heard you knocking at my door
And oh, I would like you to know that
Not every moment so picture perfect or Kodak
Trying to be the new me, get rid of the throwback
You probably heard this before
Get ready for the night, think it was ‘round quarter to ten
The only reason I’m going out ‘cause I heard you was back again
I feel the same pressure and I know what it feel like
When people ask me when I’m joining the real life
And I don’t know what to say to them
We all make mistakes, I’m trying to catch a break
Putting the past away
It’s better late than never to get together
Whether or not I want to
Everything seemed alright tonight when I first hit the strip
But things start to change right away upon the first sip
Your return bittersweet, misery loves company
And it loves me, no romance or hold hands
I’m no fan of the same damn drama
Please change the program and say what you wanna
I tried to play the background but I’m a front runner
Comma, something stopped me in the middle of my sentence
Dropped all my worries, never picked ‘em up
Till now, my glass half empty but it filled out
But one shot of you and it spills out
What’s the problem? I’m trying to figure it out, it’s out my hands now
Everyone says I’ve been doing it wrong
Should follow the crowd and move it along
Take another drag and flick it away
Worry about tomorrow, I’m here today
I’m here today, I’ve made mistakes and I’m running late
I’ve made mistakes and I’m here today and I’m running late
The song "Better Late Than Never" by Outasight invites us to reflect on the ups and downs of relationships and to appreciate the present moment. The lyrics explain the situation of a person who wakes up late at night to a knocking at his door. He hesitates to open his eyes, but then he realizes that the person knocking is someone he used to know and who has recently returned to his life. The singer is torn between the past and the present and asks for forgiveness for his mistakes. He acknowledges that life is not always picture-perfect and that it is better to seize the moment than to wait for the perfect time.
Later in the song, the singer explains that he is trying to catch a break and put the past away. He talks about how his night started off all right, but then things began to turn sour upon his first sip. He acknowledges that he is no fan of drama but finds himself in a bittersweet situation with his former flame. He understands that he has made mistakes, but he is here today and trying to make things right. The chorus reminds us that it is never too late to get together and make amends, even if it means admitting to our faults and being vulnerable.
Line by Line Meaning
Open my eyes, hung over around somewhere quarter to four
I woke up feeling hungover at around 3:45 am
The only reason I did ‘cause I heard you knocking at my door
I only got up because I heard you knocking on my door
And oh, I would like you to know that Not every moment so picture perfect or Kodak
I want you to know that not every moment is perfect, like in a photo
Trying to be the new me, get rid of the throwback
I am trying to change and leave the past behind
You probably heard this before
This may sound familiar to you
Get ready for the night, think it was ‘round quarter to ten The only reason I’m going out ‘cause I heard you was back again
I am getting ready to go out because I heard you were back again
And oh, I would like you to realize I feel the same pressure and I know what it feel like When people ask me when I’m joining the real life And I don’t know what to say to them
I want you to realize that I feel the same pressure as others when they ask me about joining the real world, but I don't know what to say
We all make mistakes, I’m trying to catch a break Putting the past away
We all make mistakes and I am trying to move forward and leave the past behind
It’s better late than never to get together Whether or not I want to
It's better to meet up late than never meet up at all, regardless of whether I really want to or not
Everything seemed alright tonight when I first hit the strip But things start to change right away upon the first sip
Everything seemed ok when I first went out, but things quickly changed after having a drink
Your return bittersweet, misery loves company And it loves me, no romance or hold hands
Your return is bittersweet, and I feel like misery loves company, even though there is no romance or holding hands
I’m no fan of the same damn drama Please change the program and say what you wanna I tried to play the background but I’m a front runner Comma, something stopped me in the middle of my sentence
I don't like the same drama over and over again and I have tried to stay in the background, but now I am taking charge. However, something has interrupted my train of thought
Dropped all my worries, never picked ‘em up Till now, my glass half empty but it filled out But one shot of you and it spills out
I had let go of my worries and was feeling better, but seeing you has caused me to feel overwhelmed again
What’s the problem? I’m trying to figure it out, it’s out my hands now
I am trying to figure out what the problem is, but it is out of my control
Everyone says I’ve been doing it wrong Should follow the crowd and move it along Take another drag and flick it away Worry about tomorrow, I’m here today
Everyone thinks I am doing things wrong and should just follow along with the crowd. However, I am focusing on the present and not worrying about tomorrow
I’ve made mistakes and I’m running late
I have made mistakes in the past and I am running behind schedule
I’m here today and I’m running late
Despite being late, I am here in the present moment
Contributed by Abigail J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Alibek Mukhanov
Is it just me? or did this song convince you guys to definitely buy the album? xD
berettastorm88
Heard this on a video surprisingly very good, had to get the name of the song and im glad i found it.
DxDxS28
This is old. but it beats the music that coming out today! Good job Outasight!
Cavan Nugent
Still here 2020
Fantastic job man
akabsjsj
FURTHER is my favourite album :)
musiclover4ever2000
I prefer his old music (like this) than his new music like, "Tonight's the Night". But I do wish that his future music has R&B and Hip-Hop genre in it.
RY4NJW
hes gonna be very famous soon
Lori Hess
omg!i cant stop!!!!
Eh beef
fucking nice job uploading his song :D
smallfootM
@mikeantfahey Hey buddy, I find it on thepiratebay (further and radiosomething haha). Thanks for your help keep putting good music on youtube, the world need to hear something like that. Good evening sir!