Pitchfork: Cage to Release LP on Def Jux

Dark, demented hip-hop is something that can only be taken so far-- and after the Geto Boys, does it really matter how far? Once NYC-based mad rapper Cage realized that, Definitive Jux was ready to listen. A good two years in the making (with a title-song 10" already out), Hell's Winter stands to turn a few heads when it hits the streets in September. Not only has Cage reportedly toned down the menace he applied so thickly on 2002's Movies for the Blind, but some of the other contributors for Hell's Winter must have come to the studio from Hell's left field.

Specifically, live instrumentation will be provided on a few tracks ("Goodmorning NY", "Stripes", and "Hell's Winter") by the guitar of Matt Sweeney and the bass of Yo La Tengo's James McNew, while Jello Biafra will impersonate his good friend Dubya on the DJ Shadow-produced "Grand Ol Party Crash", and Daryl Palumbo (of the hardcore band Glassjaw) lends his vocals to "Shoot Frank". El-P works the beats on no less than 8 of the tracks, and RjD2, Blockhead, and Camu Tao also make their presences known behind the boards. There's even a reunion of sorts of the Weatherman on "Weathermen Gang", which features Aesop Rock, El-P, Tame 1, and Yak Ballz on the mic. Hopefully not lost in the shuffle is Cage himself, out for a new kind of blood, on all of these here tracks:

01 Goodmorning NY
02 Too Heavy for Cherubs
03 Grand Ol Party Crash
04 The Death of Chris Palko
05 Stripes
06 Shoot Frank
07 Scenester
08 Perfect World
09 The Subtle Art of the Breakup Song
10 Peeranoia
11 Weathermen Gang
12 Public Property
13 Lord Have Mercy
14 Hell's Winter