#DCMUSICWEEK – Questionmark Asylum – Hey Look Away

 http://www.youtube.com/v/geBci0VcSM0&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01

In 1995,  I was 17 years old. My favorite after school hangout when not at practice for the It’s Academic team (Jeopardy style quiz bowl TV show with three three person teams of high schoolers) was The Wiz on Wisconsin Avenue. For those unaware, The Wiz was a giant chain music store that was very influential and popular on the East coast for most of the latter part of the previous century. Well, I hung out at the Wiz constantly, listening to pretty much every hip hop CD in the store, but rarely ever buying an album (save Black Moon’s Enta da Stage), and loving the dying art of the cassette single. Easily my favorite cassette at 17? The single of the below DC winner, Questionmark Asylum’s “Hey Look Away.” The quartet, Eddie Black, Mistafiss, Doms and the now deceased Ding didn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, but they absolutely provided a laid back winner that fit well into the ethos of the era, and with a mellifluous hook with lyrics flowing like water holds up well to the test of time. Questionmark Asylum while signed to RCA, and being the first DC hip hop act to ink with a major, were not able to match their success, and while still together, opened a door that many can, have and hopefully will walk through in the future.