1. The Rapper: Cage Ke… Read Full Bio ↴There is more than one artist with this name:
1. The Rapper: Cage Kennylz (born Christian Palko), commonly known as Cage, is an underground rapper based in New York City, United States.
Cage's life has gone from watching his father shoot heroin, to addiction and violence and mental institutions to cutting an album for Columbia Records and being a rising star in the heyday of the NYC independent rap scene, to the final culmination and personal triumph that his most current release Hell's Winter has become. It's a brand new record from someone who has been through more extreme circumstances than most people could ever imagine, and has come out triumphant and a better person because of it, and whose artistic vision now reflects this.
18 years old, fresh out of the lodge, Cage decided to pursue his the talent he honed while in hell and try to become a professional rapper. He made a demo, got a manager and was introduced to Pete Nice of 3rd Bass fame. Pete featured Cage on his solo effort "Dust to Dust" on the song "Rich Bring 'Em Back" in 1993. This was his first appearance on a rap record.
Through Pete Nice Cage met fledgling radio personality Bobbito Garcia who had just started his soon to be legendary late night mix show with DJ Stretch Armstrong. He was invited up to the show several time, earning a rep in the emerging underground NY scene as a savage and raw new MC with an original style based on his tortured life and demented imagery
Through his connection with that show, he met and formed a strong friendship with the KMD (whose front man Zev Love X would eventually be known as MF DOOM) and formed a very strong friendship with the late great Subroc. Cage was the last person to see Subroc alive before he was killed. He also became associated with and close to: Kurious Jorge, K-Solo, Godfather Don, Artifacts, Pharoah Monch, El-P (who actually worked with Cage briefly in 1994 on a 3 song demo now lost to the world), the Juggaknots and many more.
Bobbito and Pete Nice started a label through Columbia Records called Hoppoh and were on the verge of singing Cage as one of their first releases. At this time Cage was heavily abusing drugs and every time he got into the studio he was too high to record anything that Columbia thought was worthy of a major label release.
In 1997, Cage's friend and mentor Bobbito Garcia started his own independent label Fondle 'Em Records, and offered cage a twelve inch deal. Refocused and determined to get it right this time, Cage penned the single Agent Orange b/w Radiohead. The single would go on to be one of the landmark records of the golden era of NYC underground/independent rap music and propelled Cage into cult star status.
After a few more singles with Fondle 'Em, Cage met and became friends with Philly to New York transplant rap group The High And the Mighty. He formed a group with them called the Smut Peddlers, and Rawkus (who were riding high on albums by Company Flow and Mos Def, to name a few) offered them a full length album deal through Eastern Conference’s imprint, Eastern Conference. The record sold over 50 thousand copies and solidified Cage's status as a rising rap star in the independent scene.
Cage went on to do more records with Eastern Conference including his first solo record Movies for the Blind. The record was the realization of the very character he became through his tortured early years, relying on raw, savage, often cruel, misogynistic, gritty and rebellious attitudes he had formed through his earlier years. The record struck a chord, selling 15 thousand copies in just 2 weeks, and his legion of dedicated fans grew ever bigger, attracted to his visceral and dangerous persona and music. He traveled the world several times over in support of the record and became a major draw in the independent show circuit.
Soon after he started the supergroup Weathermen, comprised of good friends Camu Tao, El-P, Aesop Rock, Yak Ballz, Tame 1, Breeze of the Juggaknots and Vast Aire.
Restless with his artistic direction and feeling trapped by a persona created out of his troubled youth, he found himself at a crossroads. He felt as though he was squandering his writing abilities and catering to music with content that only scratched the surface of what he was about. He no longer wanted to project crazy for the sake of crazy and grew tired of showing the results of his past and how they reflected on his personality. Instead, he wanted to explain why he was the way he was and wanted to make a record that he could play for his daughter someday; a record that reflected the man he was now while at the same time finally shedding light on the source of his rage, pain and rebellion. It was at this point that he and El-p started to seriously talk about making an album that would truly realize his desire to take his art to another level. They cautiously talked and imagined this transformation for over a year, culminating with his signing with Definitive Jux records. Cage worked to to bring these ideas to fruition, and the result is a cathartic and radical statement of a tortured boy turned man. A detailed, imaginative and often disturbing look into the dark territory that Cage had so closely guarded from the fans that loved him.
Cage appeared at the end of the Head Automatica album Decadence on the track 'I Shot William H. Macy' - lead singer Daryl Palumbo appeared on the RJD2 produced track Shoot Frank, as well as his band being referenced throughout the album (notably on Scenester, with Cage urging the listener to "slip it in your Head Automatica folder"). Head Automatica also wrote a song called K-Horse about Cage on their new album Popaganda.
Actor Shia LaBeouf star of Transformers (July 2007) will be playing Cage in an upcoming movie about his life.
2. The Power Metal Band: (from website bio) CAGE formed in 1992 after the breakup of two outfits from San Diego, CRUSHER and NOMAD. The band has become an underground legend of sorts and are still active to this day. Their original lineup consisted of Sean Peck (Vocals), David Garcia (Guitar), Eric Horton (Guitar), Mike Giordano (Bass), and Damian Arletto (Drums).
In 2010 original bassist Mike Giordano and lead guitarist Anthony Wayne McGuiniss left the band, and new recruits bassist Steve Brogden (guitarist/vocalist for Howler) and former Brick Bath bassist Pete Stone were added on. Current lineup consists of Sean Peck(vocals), Dave Garcia(Guitar), Casey Trask(Guitar), Dwight Magic(Bass), and Sean Elg(Drums)
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Among the Sleep
Cage Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And feed my thoughts to Christ to the altar
I wake up on a red floor
Axing a dead whore
My dick chewed up, why I let this bitch give me head for?
Pigs tryin' ta kick down the door, I'm out for me
Opened the sliding glass door and hopped off the balcony
Fell 30 flights to ? on 10th Av.
And after it blew up
I woke up and threw up
Stuck my hand in my pants, my shit ain't chewed up
Wiped the puke from my face
Then leaved this place
With a 4-5 in the waist
At an elitist pace
No breeding space
I step out and show face
Within 3 minutes I'm approached for H
Then a shotgun to neck, now loose the weapon
And my scull fragments painted the sky for seconds
[Chorus]
Back to my brain like my brain is a home
While I roll with the fame I still aim at the throne
All my peers all sleep and I'm the only one not weak
Or am I unconscious dreaming I'm making a speech
Is this reality or my memory getting milage
Am I staring at the sun or blood vessels in my eyelids
Do I make music or is music making me
Is this really all death or just my awakening
I pick my head up, with a face full of drool
Look around the classroom, now I'm some geek in high school
Get fucked with in the hallway and can't do shit
But write names on bullets and fill a few clips
No need for rags and vodka, got a locker
With enough fire-power to war with helicopters
First click to pass, I'm clicking to release
Each adolescent fist holding 4 police killers
And I ain't paying for the clips I'm spendin'
When I shoot up the crowd like a ? convention
Feds storm the building for the sick boy with balls
Made of steel, put shit through toilet stalls
See my teachers dead through holes in the door
And alerted the cops outside, holdin' the floor
I exit the bathroom, enter a vet parade
Getting shot the fuck up but smoke some pigs on the way
[Chorus]
I open up my eyes to get cracked in the face
Six times, while I'm asked for combos to a safe
My wife on the couch, dying, raped, in shock
While the gunmen argue on where to take the Yacht
Assuming I'm rich
Playboy bitch
My own boat
And if I don't start speaking I'ma loose my throat
They start chumming the water with my dead hoe and laugh
Force me to see great whites snapped on the lower half
Locked off my arm, do it in, no guns to shoot
Think of 3 past deaths and find an escape route
All I have to do is wake up, lift the mast
And get shot off the boat and my back to get whipped in half
I wake up screamin'
With a shotgun in church, feenin'
To kill myself, but I don't know if I'm still dreamin'
50-50 chance I'ma die and go straight up
Or straight to hell, either fuckin' way I'ma wake up!
The lyrics to Cage's song Among the Sleep describe a series of disturbing and violent dreams or nightmares. The rhymes are tinged with surrealistic and horror elements that create a nightmarish atmosphere. The lines depict a chaotic scene where nothing makes sense. The singer seems to be moving from one violent situation to the next. The imagery created is shocking, with explicit descriptions of extreme violence, sexual encounters, and suicide.
The opening lines suggest that the singer is about to meet with the minds of some intellectuals, but then the scene quickly changes, and he wakes up on a red floor holding an ax, next to a dead whore. Amid the chaos, the pigs (police) try to kick down the door, and the singer escapes by jumping off a balcony. The line, "With a 4-5 in the waist at an elitist pace," makes it seem that he is fleeing a criminal underworld. The dream scenes include a meth lab explosion, waking up in a classroom, and waking up on a yacht with his dead wife and gunmen trying to kill him.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm seconds from meeting with the minds berg had to offer
I am close to reaching the highest level of intelligence attainable
And feed my thoughts to Christ to the altar
I give my ideas and beliefs to a higher power
I wake up on a red floor
I find myself in a violent and dangerous situation
Axing a dead whore
I am in a state of brutality and violence
My dick chewed up, why I let this bitch give me head for?
I feel regret for something that I allowed to happen
Pigs tryin' ta kick down the door, I'm out for me
The authorities are after me but I am only looking out for myself
Opened the sliding glass door and hopped off the balcony
I try to escape my situation by any means necessary
Fell 30 flights to ? on 10th Av.
I fall from a high distance and land in an unknown place
Landed on a FedEx-disguised meth lab
I unintentionally end up in a dangerous and illegal place
And after it blew up
An explosive event occurs
I woke up and threw up
I feel nauseated and sick from the experience
Stuck my hand in my pants, my shit ain't chewed up
I assess myself for injury and find none
Wiped the puke from my face
I try to clean myself up and regain composure
Then leaved this place
I leave the dangerous situation behind
With a 4-5 in the waist
I carry a gun for self-protection
At an elitist pace
I move quickly and with purpose
No breeding space
I feel crowded and suffocated
I step out and show face
I confront the world and reveal myself
Within 3 minutes I'm approached for H
I am solicited for drugs
Then a shotgun to neck, now loose the weapon
I am violently disarmed
And my scull fragments painted the sky for seconds
I suffer a brutal and bloody death
[Chorus]
Recurring refrain expressing a deep sense of confusion about reality
Back to my brain like my brain is a home
I retreat to my thoughts and try to make sense of the world
While I roll with the fame I still aim at the throne
I am successful but still strive for something greater
All my peers all sleep and I'm the only one not weak
I see others as complacent and unambitious
Or am I unconscious dreaming I'm making a speech
I question the reality of my own experiences
Is this reality or my memory getting milage
I am unsure if my perception of the world is valid
Am I staring at the sun or blood vessels in my eyelids
I struggle to distinguish between real and imagined phenomena
Do I make music or is music making me
I question the nature of my creativity
Is this really all death or just my awakening
I contemplate the meaning of existence and the afterlife
I pick my head up, with a face full of drool
I awaken from a deep and confusing dream
Look around the classroom, now I'm some geek in high school
I feel vulnerable and powerless in a new environment
Get fucked with in the hallway and can't do shit
I am bullied and helpless
But write names on bullets and fill a few clips
I plan revenge and take matters into my own hands
No need for rags and vodka, got a locker
I have easy access to weapons
With enough fire-power to war with helicopters
I have access to extreme amounts of weaponry
First click to pass, I'm clicking to release
I am ready and willing to use my weapons
Each adolescent fist holding 4 police killers
I am prepared to use extreme violence against authority figures
And I ain't paying for the clips I'm spendin'
I am willing to spend everything for my revenge
When I shoot up the crowd like a ? convention
I commit a mass shooting without remorse
Feds storm the building for the sick boy with balls
The authorities come after me with force
Made of steel, put shit through toilet stalls
I show no fear and use violence to escape
See my teachers dead through holes in the door
I witness destruction and death
And alerted the cops outside, holdin' the floor
I cause chaos and become a wanted criminal
I exit the bathroom, enter a vet parade
I walk into a crowded and festive environment
Getting shot the fuck up but smoke some pigs on the way
I engage in a final shootout with the police
[Chorus]
Recurring refrain expressing a deep sense of confusion about reality
I open up my eyes to get cracked in the face
I am violently assaulted
Six times, while I'm asked for combos to a safe
I am tortured for information
My wife on the couch, dying, raped, in shock
I witness extreme violence and tragedy
While the gunmen argue on where to take the Yacht
My attackers are focused on material gain
Assuming I'm rich
My attackers have mistaken me for someone else
Playboy bitch
I am belittled and objectified
My own boat
My attackers covet my possessions
And if I don't start speaking I'ma loose my throat
I am threatened with violence unless I comply
They start chumming the water with my dead hoe and laugh
My attackers display extreme cruelty and lack of empathy
Force me to see great whites snapped on the lower half
I am subjected to further trauma and horror
Locked off my arm, do it in, no guns to shoot
I am defeated and helpless
Think of 3 past deaths and find an escape route
I use my memories and imagination to find a way out
All I have to do is wake up, lift the mast
I hope that waking up will break me free from this nightmare
And get shot off the boat and my back to get whipped in half
I accept whatever fate awaits me, even if it means death
I wake up screamin'
I awake from a terrifying dream
With a shotgun in church, feenin'
I feel the need for protection and violence
To kill myself, but I don't know if I'm still dreamin'
I struggle to distinguish between reality and dreams
50-50 chance I'ma die and go straight up
I contemplate the possibility of death and the afterlife
Or straight to hell, either fuckin' way I'ma wake up!
I am resigned to the fact that this cycle of violence and terror will likely continue
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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