Outlandish

Formed in Brøndby Strand, on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Outlandish originally brought together Isam Bachiri, Lenny Martinez and Waqas Qadri, three paths shaped by Danish, Moroccan, Pakistani and Honduran heritage that also run through their music. Emerging in the late 1990s, the trio develops hip-hop in English, Danish and with touches of other languages, with lyrics attentive to questions of identity, spirituality and social life. Their sound blends rap, sung choruses and borrowings from Arab, South Asian and Latin American musical traditions, in a form accessible without being limited to the frame of Scandinavian rap. Outlandish released Outland’s Official in 2000, then Bread & Barrels of Water in 2002, Closer Than Veins in 2005, Sound of a Rebel in 2009 and Warrior // Worrier in 2012. The band then circulated between hip-hop stages, generalist festivals and major popular events, in Denmark as well as internationally, with tracks such as “Walou”, “Guantanamo” or “Aicha” accompanying this trajectory. After an announced split in 2017, Outlandish resumed activity in 2019 in the form of a duo composed of Lenny Martinez and Waqas Qadri, before releasing The Cornershop Carnival in 2023.