Cage / Christian Palko

Early Life

"Chris Palko was born in Würzburg, Germany, to American parents. His father was stationed on a West German military base as a member of the military police. Palko lived there until the age of four when his father was dishonorably discharged for selling and using heroin, and the family was sent back to the United States where they lived in Middletown, New York. His father would often force Palko to pull homemade tourniquets around his arm as he injected heroin. At the age of eight, Palko's father was arrested during a standoff with state troopers after threatening his family with a shotgun. By the time Palko was expelled from high school, his mother had remarried twice, and he was beaten by his stepfather Frank. Palko began using PCP, cocaine, LSD, cannabis and alcohol, and was sent to live with his uncle on a German military base, where he was beaten and sent home after a year.

Palko was arrested several times for drug possession and fighting in the streets. When he faced jail time for violating probation, his mother convinced the judge that he was mentally unstable, and he was sent to the Stony Lodge psychiatric hospital for a two-week evaluation. He stayed in the hospital for sixteen months, where he was a part of a small group used to test fluoxetine, commonly used in Prozac. After being misdiagnosed and placed on the drug, he became suicidal and made several attempts to kill himself, including hanging himself with his shoelaces and saving his lithium (medication) dose for a month before ingesting all of them at once."

Early Career

"When Palko was released from the hospital at eighteen, he pursued a career as a rapper, giving himself the stagename "Alex", after the protagonist of Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange. After hiring a manager and recording a demo, he was introduced to rapper Pete Nice, and Cage was featured on the 1993 album Dust to Dust. Pete Nice also introduced Palko to radio personality Bobbito García, who featured Palko on his program several times, increasing his reputation among New York's underground hip hop scene, where he became associated with KMD, Kurious Jorge, K-Solo, Godfather Don, Necro, Artifacts, Pharoahe Monch and El-P. Palko signed a recording contract with Columbia Records, but frequently recorded while intoxicated, and the label found his efforts to be unsatisfactory. Palko briefly put his career on hold and his drug use increased.

When García founded the label Fondle 'Em Records, he offered Palko a record deal, and Cage released a single featuring the songs "Radiohead" and "Agent Orange" in 1997, to success and acclaim. Following the release of The Slim Shady EP in December 1997, Palko accused Detroit-based rapper Eminem of imitating his style.

After several more singles with Fondle 'Em, Palko met Mr. Eon and DJ Mighty Mi of The High & Mighty, and the trio formed the group Smut Peddlers, releasing the album Porn Again on Rawkus Records in 2001. The album peaked at #10 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, #43 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and #184 on the Billboard 200, while its single "That Smut" peaked at #9 on the Hot Rap Singles chart and #96 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. In 2001, Palko's music was featured on the soundtrack to the psychological crime film Bully."

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cage_(rapper)

Agent Orange / Movies Of The Blind

I will throw in another track from his latest album, Kill The Architect

The Hunt / Kill The Architect

Cage also had a beef with Eminem about him stealing Cages style in the end of the 90s. A lot of people can testify that Em was rapping like Nas/AZ in 1996. Cage dropped “Agent Orange” and “Radiohead” in 1997, and Em starts rapping like he’s insane in 1999. Also, Em spent some time in Jersey with The Outsidaz in the 90s, so he was probably familiar with Cage to an extent. It’s not like that’s a bad thing, though. Everyone gets their style from somewhere.

So if you listen to "Agent Orange" And "Radiohead" which both were released in 1997, and then turn to Ems style in 1999, you clearly will hear that Eminem has adopted some of his style. There has been a lot of talk about this Eminem/Cage beef, but it never mounted to anything. You can check it out if you want, there was some tracks going around there at that time.

Cage - ...And So Kiddies (Eminem & Royce Da 5'9 diss)

Here is a collection of the different tracks that went back and forth

Even though Eminem has superial technical skills, it is impossible to say that Eminem didnt like his style, and somewhat adopted it ;)

Cage - A Crowd Killer

I really love that track! Peace out! Tune in next time!

@kiimo