by John Bear
Daily Lobo
In the early '90s, whitey central command activated its most elite operative at the time, Eminem, to infiltrate hip-hop culture and commence phase one of Operation Co-opt.
He failed.
Eminem didn't live up to his potential as an MC, opting to take the easy road with unrefined venting about how much he hates his mother and his baby mama.
But he did get the ball rolling for other white emcees. Before Eminem, rappers like Vanilla Ice single-handedly messed up the game for nearly a decade. Eminem opened the door for rappers like Cage.
Cage has been around for years, before Eminem actually, but he never would have come as far as he has without a little help from his friend.
Perhaps friend is too strong. The two appear to not like one another. A close listen to Eminem's lyrics will often reveal a strong rivalry between the two. The same is true of Cage's latest offering, Hell's Winter.
"Subtle Art of the Breakup Song" details the gory car-wreck death of a girlfriend but sounds like a riff on Eminem's "Bonnie and Clyde '95."
Any rapper rivalries aside, Cage is a far more skilled lyricist than Eminem, and the production on the album features a veritable dream team of beat engineers.
Definitive Jux overlord El-P mans several of the tracks, utilizing his trademark electronic buzzing and beeping coupled with highly slanted drum hits that transcend anything that could be called traditional hip-hop instrumentation.
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Also showing up on "Shoot Frank" is Rjd2, the man behind such instrumental hip-hop classics like Since We Last Spoke and Dead Ringer.
DJ Shadow, urban trance master, provides the music for antiwar song "Grand Ol' Party Crash," the undisputed high point of the album. The beat is dread inspiring with hard-hitting bass, feedback and an off-kilter drum line that will leave a listener feeling paranoid at best. The track features former Dead Kennedys frontman and infamous rabble-rouser Jello Biafra yelling the hook in his most nasal and hilarious George Bush impression.
Cage and Eminem, though they seem to hate each other, possess many similarities. They both rap in a high register, though Cage's voice is somewhat more palatable than his counterpart's, which is at times so nasal it can instill irritability bordering on rage.
Both emcees spend a good deal of time bashing on one or more of their parents. This seems to be a prerequisite for white rappers. Street cred is, for whatever reason, important in the hip-hop world. Since white boys can't claim to be from the ghetto - even if they are - they are forced to play up the poor white trash angle.
"Stripes" details Cage's early years growing up in West Germany, where his father was purportedly a heroin-dealing military police officer. The song is similar to much of Eminem's mommy-hating material but has the added edge of containing international intrigue.
Any perceived similarities aside, Cage has Eminem outmanned on the production side and outgunned when it comes to lyrics. Thanks for paving the way Marshall, but your services will no longer be required.
