Cage - Depart From Me (2009)

[DirtMcgehrk]

01. Nothing Left To Say
02. Beat Kids
03. Dr. Strong
04. I Found My Mind In Connecticut
05. I Lost It In Havertown
06. Teenage Hands
07. Eating It's Way Out Of Me
08. Kick Rocks
09. Captain Bumout
10. Strain
11. Fat Kids Need An Anthem
12.Look What You Did
13. Depart From Me
14. I Never Knew You
15. Hugs And Kisses

[DirtMcgehrk]

Oh how the times are changing. Genres expand and contract, purists lash out in outrage, and the word "faggot" is heard across the land. Depart From Me, the new album by Cage Kennylz, effectively bends the genres of hip hop, pop, metal and punk, and mashes them together for a delirious roller coaster of atmospheric, thoroughly depressing music.

Let's start out with a little background, since one of the most interesting aspects of Depart From Me lies within its stark contrast to Cage's past releases. Cage, otherwise known as Chris Palko, is one of the more notable underground emcees to spring from the New York underground scene, both because of his smart, acid-tongue delivery and drug addled stain of a life. Palko was born in Wurzburg, Germany to an American family. His father was stationed at a West German military base in the U.S. army. Palko's father was honorably discharged after being caught selling heroin, and the family moved back to the United States soon after. Addiction and abuse plagued Palko's life in his childhood years. His father would often beat him and force him to inject heroin into his arm. At the age of 8, Palko's father was arrested after threatening his family with a shotgun and was taken into custody after a lengthy police standoff. Cage entered his high school years with a considerable amount of rage and paranoia, and was almost immediately kicked out for bad behavior. His mother had remarried twice and unfortunately her second husband was also extremely abusive. Cage began experimenting with LSD, mescaline, cannabis and alcohol around this time. Eventually he was arrested for drug possession and fighting in the streets. When faced with jail time, his mother convinced a judge that he was mentally unstable, and was sent to the Stony Lodge psychiatric hospital for a two week evaluation. His stay eventually lasted 18 months. During this time he was part of a small group of patients used to test the drug fluoxetine, otherwise known as Prozac, which had yet to be an established drug to treat depression and other severe mental disorders. After being misdiagnosed and placed on the drug, Cage began making suicide attempts, trying multiple times to hang himself with his shoelaces and hording his lithium doses before taking them all at once. During his time at Stony Lodge, he was illegally restrained over 20 times for periods of up to 13 hours by straitjackets and 10 point bed ties.

At the age of 18, Palko was released from the psychiatric facility, homeless and desperate. He had started to write and rhyme while in Stony Lodge, and recorded a demo which was picked up by Pete Nice, who subsequently featured him on his album Dust To Dust. Cage's reputation began to rise, garnering attention from acts such as KMD, Kurious Jorge, K-Solo, Godfather Don, Artifacts, Pharaohe Monch, and El-P. He signed with Columbia Records, but was soon kicked off the label because of his rampant drug use. After being dropped by Columbia, Cage was scooped up by Fondle 'Em Records. This marked the musical period that has dominated the majority of Palko's career. Cage's lyrics were brutal, misogynistic and homophobic. Fantasies of murder, sexual escapades and even rape dominated his writing, and his nasally, slurred delivery only magnified the disturbing rhymes. He released several singles with Fondle 'Em Records while also starting a feud with Eminem, who he accused of stealing his style of rapping and subject matter. The only legit record that Palko released on the Fondle 'Em label was titled Porn Again, with a group consisting of DJ Mighty Mi and Mr. Eon. The record was a concept album centered around pornography, and achieved a fair amount of success on the east coast.

In 2002 Cage signed with Eastern Conference Records. In August of that year, he released his first studio album, Movies For The Blind. The album is now considered a cult classic by many, but Cage now reportedly disowns it, claiming that it "sort of glorified drugs" and that he felt the album was "crazy for the sake of being crazy [...] [It] was just kind of an angsty, bullshit record. A few songs on there I liked, and I had a few things to say that were fragmented in there within a lot of randomness." During his time with Eastern Conference Records, Cage formed a group called The Weathermen, which consists of Aesop Rock, Tame One, Yak Ballz, El-P, Breeze Brewin' and Cage himself. In 2003, Cage left Eastern Conference Records over a contract dispute and money problems.

Cage began to stray away from playing fictional characters in his music. After signing with Definitive Jux in 2004, he released his second full studio album, Hell's Winter. Palko was off drugs, and finally seemed to be in control of his life. It certainly showed in the album. The record played out like a kind of autobiography from hell. Surprisingly, using true to life lyrics proved to be arguably more disturbing than his fantastical work, and much more comprehensive. His writing style became much more open and abstract, growing much more in a metaphorical sense than ever before. Cage was recently quoted saying, "I make progressive rap, it's as simple as that. [...] I don't live for drugs anymore, I don't support them, and I'm not about to make a million songs about them anymore." Hell's Winter was undoubtedly the best received album of Cage's career, and deservedly so. All glorification of drug use, homophobia, and hatred towards the opposite sex was eliminated from the equation, but Cage still retained a disturbing edge by utilizing reality as an effective storytelling device. As of late, Cage has been reportedly working on a biopic of his life with his close friend Shia LaBeouf of Transformers fame.

So what about Depart From Me? Well, it's his third studio album, and his second released on Def Jux. It sounds almost nothing like anything he's done previously, and it's probably going to alienate a lot of his previous fans. While Hell's Winter took two giant steps away from his Fondle 'Em and Eastern Conference days, Depart From Me takes at least four more and jumps over a chasm. The nasally, anguished delivery is still there, but the undirected, often misguided hatred is not.

Production on the album is barely recognizable as what's currently defined as hip hop. It's heavy on the synths and HEAVY on the guitars. A sonic boom of shadowy noise, accompanied by skittering beats, rumbling basslines and cascading hooks. It's a hook-heavy album that ventures into the genres of punk, metal, hip hop and pop, and creates a surprisingly listenable balance among them. The majority of the production is handled by Sean Martin, the guitarist from the hardcore punk/metal band Hatebreed. The rest is done by Def Jux founder and producer El-P, and one track "Strain", is made by label mate Aesop Rock. As I stated before, this album is probably going to sour a lot of hip hop "purists", although it seems a bit unfair to box Depart From Me into such a small musical space. Patches of differing genres pop up throughout the album, and result in a very diverse assortment of songs. It begins with one of the first leaked tracks, "Nothing Left To Say", which is the most clear-cut hip hop song on the LP. It's a remembrance track dedicated to one of Cage's close friends, Camu Tao, who passed away about a year ago from lung cancer. The track revs up from a grindingly slow, slurred introduction that builds up into an explosive blast of noise pierced by Cages razor sharp lyrics. Cage's new sound is introduced right off the bat. He's chosen a slower, much more reserved style of rapping that goes well with the subject matter that he presents. Some songs barely even rhyme, but not in a bad way. "Dr. Strong" for instance is a tale of Palko's stint in Stony Lodge. The track is essentially frenetic monologue that recounts his experiences there, and has a heavy 70's punk influence reminiscent of the song "Institutionalized", by Suicidal Tendencies. "Captain Bumout" is another track that really stood out to me. It has an extremely catchy chorus, and really sums up the "hook heavy" sound that Cage was going for on Depart From Me. "Fat Kids Need An Anthem" was another standout, at least for me. A rolling, bass heavy beat frames another autobiographical story concerning Palko's recent weight loss. Although image is a predominant theme in rap, it is rarely presented in the form of embarrassment. Since when have you heard of a hip hop artist rapping about hating being fat? Vulnerability is something that isn't seen enough in the genre, and the song feels like a blast of fresh air. "I Never Knew You" is the lead single on the album, and is a potent mixture of plummeting, heavily fuzzed out guitar choruses and dark, steadily delivered lyrics. It showcases the creepy edge that Cage still possesses, and paints a twisted, but strangely romantic tale of love and obsession.

Depart From Me is an individual triumph for Cage, no matter how many records it sells, how many fans it accrues or how many are sickened by it. You'll either love it or hate it. There's definitely not going to be any gray area here. It's glaringly clear that Cage really couldn't care less about this. Depart From Me is without a doubt an artist's album, and is a perfect example of expression of self and progression within a genre that despite such a rich cultural following, refuses to expand much outside of its initially constructed boundaries.

Score: 3.9/5

[angry!]

youre a fuckin homo.

just like cage.

seriously yo this shit is trash i havent seen an artist reject their past and ruin their career like this since vanilla ice!!!!

he needs to get a therapist or pick up a guitar with this mood swing bullshit!!

[DirtMcgehrk]

youre a fuckin homo.

just like cage.

seriously yo this shit is trash i havent seen an artist reject their past and ruin their career like this since vanilla ice!!!!

he needs to get a therapist or pick up a guitar with this mood swing bullshit!!

Have you ever met me before? Should I change my review to make you happy? Different strokes for different people. You don't need to attack me personally just cause you don't like a review I made about an album.

If you think that someone ruining their career means being more successful financially and more respected artistically, then you're absolutely correct.

I think the fact that you think that Vanilla Ice had a career to ruin in the first place says it all about you.

[angry!]

Have you ever met me before? Should I change my review to make you happy? Different strokes for different people. You don't need to attack me personally just cause you don't like a review I made about an album.

If you think that someone ruining their career means being more successful financially and more respected artistically, then you're absolutely correct.

I think the fact that you think that Vanilla Ice had a career to ruin in the first place says it all about you.

youre an idiot.

he aint respected by the audience that liked his early shit. just corny homos that dont know the real like you!!

and vanilla ice at one point was on top of the world, whats cage gonna lose? his 5,000 queer fans and his bottle of pills??

its a wrap go to hot topic and buy a new belt you depressed gothic clinger!!!

[DirtMcgehrk]

youre an idiot.

he aint respected by the audience that liked his early shit. just corny homos that dont know the real like you!!

and vanilla ice at one point was on top of the world, whats cage gonna lose? his 5,000 queer fans and his bottle of pills??

its a wrap go to hot topic and buy a new belt you depressed gothic clinger!!!

It's funny, you call me a "depressed gothic clinger". I've been a Cage fan since the beginning. I don't know if you noticed, but I have a review on here of his very first album "For Your Box", which I gave a good score as well. I think that both of Cage's styles are good. They're both incredibly different, and I must admit, I thought his earlier stuff was better, but I don't think that his newer stuff is anything to scoff at. Believe me man, NightHawks is probably one of my top 10 albums of all time, and I don't think that anything that Cage does now can come remotely close to that.

I'm sorry you're so mad at me, and I don't quite understand where the hate is coming from, since I've shown no pronounced aggression towards you. You're also kinda stuck on the gay thing homey. I am not gay (I dunno if you were hoping I was or something? Because you certainly seem like the idea that I am).

[DirtMcgehrk]

Also, "buy a new belt"?

....the fuck?

[main_man]

i think it has really tight shit on it. and some really wack shit on it.

but overall, the originality and the dope shit outweighs the bullshit, so its a good album.

and im not a homo or anything like that. im hood folks.

[RynMur]

^pretty much agree. it has its pros and cons, and their are more things good then bad. although, i now see him as an emo bitch. dude needs to quit feeling sorry for himself and move on. i thought he ruined a few songs with those punk (over)vocal choruses. him and eyedea need to let that rock thing go.

Cage – Depart From Me

Top 5: Nothing Left To Say, Beat Kids, I Found My Mind In Connecticut, Depart From Me, I Never Knew You

Grade: (3/5) B-

[DirtMcgehrk]

him and eyedea need to let that rock thing go.

What'd you think of the new Eyedea & Abilities album? I agree with you about the whole rock thing. If it isn't done right then it can sound terrible, and I do admit there were some very weak points on "Depart From Me" because of that. After giving "By The Throat" a few listens I was only feeling like 3 songs on it and it felt kind of unfocused.

This is good. The input is making me think more about the album. I'm changing my score to a 3.9/5.

[main_man]

yeah, songs like "dr. strong" "beat kids" "depart from me" and "i never knew you" are all dope and definitely sound different and new. its a good use of rock type beats and cage is a dope mc as we all know.
but "kick rocks"? and "fat kids need an anthem too"? those muhfuckaz are wack as fuck.

[DirtMcgehrk]

Yeah, I was disappointed by "Fat Kids Need An Anthem". The idea of it is interesting, and it's good to see an artist taking a chance and touching on a subject like that, but it felt sloppy and like he just recorded it in like 10 minutes, as with "Kick Rocks". There are a ton of 70's punk songs that sound very similar to those tracks, and I think he was drawing a lot of influence from those, but they definitely needed more focus.

[P-Noid Brown]

The album is decent.. I really dont like the production... I expect cage to prove his status as a real nasty dude... But he's departing... Honestly he killed the album but the production need more... Cage is one of my favorite emcees i just couldn't understand the direction... The lyrics are great..

[Jimmy Focus]

I think the album is amazing but thats because im not comparing it to his other work. I never really thought movies for the blinds was that great (i only liked a few joints) and Hells winter was dope (it had a minor flaw or two) but also you gotta acknowledge tha fact that it was mostly produced by Sean Martin who was only a metal guitarist and he was writing actual songs with storys rather that jus doin typical hip hop sixteens. I think its a great album. But hey not everybody agrees with change. But look at the bright side its not as bad as when DJ Shadow decided to make hyphy tracks.

[Dr Sleepwalker]

amazing album, mu'fuckers don't know how to listen to shit.

I'll be doing a proper review on this soon, Dirt beat me to it!