Hell's Winter

I haven't bothered to listen to Cage since he put out that shitty ass Night Hawks album. Movies For The Blind was ok but I was dissappointed by that shit. It could have been a lot better but shit just had too much filler and not enough dope shit. I didn't give a shit about that Weather Proof joint. Someone was telling me to check the Leak Brothers joint but I didn't care about that because Cage isn't the wisest at picking who to collab with. I already saw what happened when he teamed up with the brilliant Smut Peddlers. I didn't trust him to rap because I was pretty sure he wasn't going to come up with another Agent Orange ever again. Not when he was hanging around dumbfucks like copywrite and mr eon. Hell's Winter gets ready to drop and I sure as fuck wasn't going to bother with that shit. That is until the internets started saying it was some cuteness. Then I decided I'd download it just to see why the computers liked it.

Much to my surprise it is actually a good record. The album is more about Cage's personal experience rather than him trying to just be a scary drugged up rapper. As far as beats go this album is more champed out than any of his last couple releases. El-p handles a bulk of the production sometimes teaming up with Camu Tao on the production. Shadow, RJd2, and Blockhead contribute to the production on this also but I think the strangest thing, well for me, is that they got some dude from fucking Yo La Tengo to lay down bass on the opening track, Good Morning. Only reason I even know about Yo La Tengo is because an old roomate use to jam them and I thought that shit sucked. To me it just sounded like a bunch of soft ass indie rock. Well the song is pretty dope but I still think Yo La Tengo is some weak shit.

There are some songs that do suck though, the main one being Scenester. Shit is lame and corny as hell. I don't care about the girlfriends he hates. In fact I don't give two shits about any rapper's girlfriends. I'm not some frustrated 15 year old who can't figure out why girls won't have sex with me so I need to latch on to cage's girl problems. The fucking hook is retarded. I think it would be better if he called it Friendster and dissed people who want to be your e-buddy.

It seems like Cage is living a better life these days which is good for him. I saw him perform out here a while back and dude has lost some weight and grown some fabulous side swept bangs that are all the rage with the hipest of kids. When he came on stage I just stared at the dude wondering who the fuck he was. For a second I was thinking it was like yakballz cousin or some shit. I didn't think it was the new and improved pudgy Cage that use to sit on stage with Copywrite sweating. Sure dude is thinner; that's good for him and all but man he needs to get the fuck off that whitebelt bullshit.

here are some mp3's to peep, I'm throwing up that instrumental too because the beat makes me think of candy canes.

Good Morning produced by El-P
Hells Winter produced by El-p (Hell's Winter Instrumental)
Stripes produced by Blockhead