Ok. My ears were only hearing the key as a cousin twice removed. I was told that The A with all the extensions shares many of the same notes as a G chord. Since Em is the relative minor of G it is in the realm of a kissing cousin so to speak, I guess this would be considered playing outside. As usual, I put a jazz spin on it and played it in Dropped D with a
slide. Hard to play funk on a slide. Fun though.