by Cyril CordorOften mistaken for some spacy, weird rap group, Outerspace has made it a mission to reinvigorate Philadelphia's underground hip-hop scene, laying down tracks of hardcore rhymes and beats. The duo's close affiliation with one of the scene's staples, Jedi Mind Tricks, has created the ideal platform to carry out such a task. Both growing up in the streets of north Philly, Crypt the Warchild and Planetary have been the best of friends since childhood. In fact, their families knew each other before they were born. They started playing with rhymes when Crypt was 11 and Planetary 13 but wanted to make a serious effort out of it once they reached high school. The two kept bumping into Jedi Mind Tricks MC Vinnie Paz at monthly events and underground joints and eventually hooked up with his label, Superegular Recordings, in the late '90s. Paz pressed their first single, "We Lyve," in 1998, but their first conceptual effort, the Illegaliens EP, came out on Wordsound Recordings in 1999, exposing more of their Puerto Rican heritage. Outerspace continued to appear on Jedi Mind Tricks' albums through the early 2000s and became a part of Paz's supergroup Army of the Pharaohs. After Outerspace moved with Jedi over to Babygrande Records, they released their debut full-length album, Blood and Ashes, in July 2004. Second time around, Crypt and Planetary branched out to other artists like Royce da 5'9 and Sheek Louch (of the LOX) to deliver Blood Brothers in September 2006.