Isam Bachiri, Lenny Martinez og Waqas Qadri If the Danish musical landscape was a shape sorting cube with which you could put square bricks into square holes and triangular bricks into triangular holes, the hole for the Outlandish brick would be many-sided, with grooves and small protrusions. Outlandish is in a box of its own; a box with room for refined lyrics, riffs and rap attitudes. Isam Bachiri, Lenny Martinez and Waqas Quadri come from the Copenhagen suburb of Brøndby Strand, but their roots are in Morocco, Honduras and Pakistan, respectively – roots which the band makes use of to refine the original American genre of hip hop. The lyrics may be in Urdu one moment, Spanish the next, only to round off with an unlikely singalong chorus – perhaps in English. But it's not just the art of lyrics that the band masters with eclectic nonchalance; they also garner samples and beats from such diverse sources as Arabic pop and Indian soundtracks. Outlandish's first single was 'Pacific to Pacific', released as long ago as 1997 as a benefit project for Amnesty International. The following year they issued another single, 'Saturday Night', which was included on the soundtrack of the Danish film Pizza King. In 2000 came the band's first 'LP', the album 'Outlands Official', on which the rap trio's elegant mixture of rap and ethnic musical elements attracted great attention. The album spawned the hit singles 'Walou' and 'Wherever'.  'Outlands Official' was nominated for the Danish Music Awards 2000 in six different categories, and was rewarded with the title of "Danish Hip Hop Release of the Year". And it wasn't just the music industry that was enraptured by the trio; the record buyers were just as enthusiastic about the album, which sold 20,000 copies. Few Danish hip hop releases have ever achieved such sales figures. On their second album,  'Bread and Barrels of Water' from 2002, the band proceeded to refine their own brand of ethnic hip hop, with a recording that was even more stylish and self-assured than its predecessor. The first single released from the album, the catchy 'Guantanamo', was played over and over again on the radio, while the second, 'Aicha', a cover version of an old Jean-Jacques Goldman number, received no less airplay. In 2005, Outlandish released their third album, 'Closer Than Veins'. By Maria Bernhard This article is provided in cooperation with DR - dr.dk/musik Læs profilen på dansk på dr.dk/musik/leksikon

Outlandish was formed in 1997 Selected recordings:  Closer Than Veins (album - 2005) Outlands Official (album - 2000) Bread and Barrels of Water  (album - 2002) Web: www.outlandmoro.com  ·