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.
Loosen Up
Outasight Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You got me all up in a knot
(You know you do)
And every time I talk you don't listen, damn,
I think it's time you loosen up
Changing ways, don't come with a manual,
I'm learning with every mistake that I make,
Pardon me, I might be that ignorant,
and Don't you feel crazy when no one will listen
And all of the people you thought that were different
End up be like the rest of the pack It's so fuckin lame.
It's harder than ever to get it together
When Looping the hoops cannot be for the better
The ties that we pull undo the whole thing
Ain't it great, when no one gets the chance to move,
We twist and turn and we never get free
Excuse me then, for thinking we can re-do,
The past and the present are tied up in chains
And don't you feel stupid when you start to lose it
And no one reacts and then you sense the movement
Against you is right there before your very eyes
The bigger you make it the harder to break it
The curses start flying and here come the hating
Of every bit of effort that I supplied.
In "Loosen Up" by Outasight, the singer is expressing feelings of being trapped and stuck in a situation that is not moving forward. He is tied up in knots and nobody is listening to him. He contemplates the difficulty of changing, as it doesn't come with a manual - he is learning with every mistake he makes. The singer believes that the past and present hold them back and keep them tied up in chains, but he doesn't want to give up hope.
The second verse talks about the frustration of feeling crazy when nobody is listening, and seeing people who you thought were different act like the rest. It is difficult to get things together when everything seems to be against you. The ties that pull them back undo everything and nobody gets the chance to move forward. The larger a situation becomes, the harder it is to break free from, and it becomes a source of hate and anger towards all the effort provided.
Overall, "Loosen Up" is an emotional song about feeling trapped by one's circumstances and yearning for a way out. The singer expresses frustration with the difficulties of change and the challenges of being heard in a world that feels like it's against them. Despite this, there is a sense of hope that things can be different if they can loosen up and find a way to break free from the chains they feel bound by.
Line by Line Meaning
You got me all tied up and twisted yea
I am feeling emotionally entangled in this situation with you.
You got me all up in a knot (You know you do)
I feel lost and confused when I try to deal with you, and that's because of your behavior.
And every time I talk you don't listen, damn, I think it's time you loosen up
I am frustrated by your inability to hear me out, and it's high time you learned to listen and be more receptive.
Changing ways, don't come with a manual, I'm learning with every mistake that I make,
I know I am not perfect, and I learn from the mistakes I make whilst trying to adapt and make positive changes in my life.
Pardon me, I might be that ignorant, To think I can unravel this knot we made.
I may be naive to believe that we can easily fix things in our relationship, but I truly want to give it my all.
And Don't you feel crazy when no one will listen
Have you ever felt like you were insane, talking to walls because nobody would lend you their ear?
And all of the people you thought that were different
End up be like the rest of the pack It's so fuckin lame.
When people you trusted to listen to you and support you turn their backs or do the opposite, it's just so disappointing.
It's harder than ever to get it together
When Looping the hoops cannot be for the better
The ties that we pull undo the whole thing
It's tough to work things out when the very attempts to fix things just make everything worse and more complicated.
Ain't it great, when no one gets the chance to move,
We twist and turn and we never get free
It's not exactly pleasant that we seem unable to make progress and move towards a solution, despite all our efforts.
Excuse me then, for thinking we can re-do,
The past and the present are tied up in chains
Pardon me for suggesting that we could rewrite history and undo our mistakes - it's just not possible when we're all so emotionally tied up.
And don't you feel stupid when you start to lose it
And no one reacts and then you sense the movement
Against you is right there before your very eyes
Do you ever feel foolish for getting worked up about something when nobody else seems to care or take you seriously, and you know it's only going to escalate and worsen the situation?
The bigger you make it the harder to break it
The curses start flying and here come the hating
Of every bit of effort that I supplied.
The more we blow things out of proportion and make a bigger deal out of them, the harder it becomes to fix them. It's already enough to make me feel broken and disheartened when I see how much people attack and criticize me, despite all the effort I've put in.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@SketchbookStudios1
Great song man. Keep it up!
@Spudinnsky
Outasigh to the top!! You truly mean it you´re Outasight bro!!
@dlm5894
Keep making music, you're incredible!
@GWhiteProductions
I don't know why but every time I'm listening to your music, I'm Smiling
@foreverfunkyy
This is amazing music, so damn good!
@amateurgumshoe
Really good song,I liked it a lot.
@JillTimpe
This is one of my fave songs from your Get It Together CD. That and Figure 8!
@stozza4eva
<3 at 0:48, keep on going Outasight. love from Melbourne, Australia
@unknown4ever101
I just discovered you! And so far I love every song!
@seeeeeeeeeeker
He's a double threat, he can sing and rap. But in this song he's demonstrating his singing skills so chill people ^-^