Cage

Underground

I've had this argument many times with friends and i just wanted some poster's views to clear it up.
would you regard Cage as an underground rapper?
personally i think he's pretty mainstream."Hell's Winter" is a good example i think,although i do like the album.
anyway whats your views?

Neamhshuntasach

I don't get how you consider Cage or even Hell's winter a part of mainstream hip hop. I mean Movies for the blind had more commercial success than Hells Winter. And Def Jux are an indenpendent record label. As are Eastern Conference which released Cage's first album. The difference you probably notice between the albums is down to the amount of drugs he was when recordings movies for the blind compared to his latest 2 releases. If you re-listen to Too heavy for the churubs, The death of Chris Palko or the Subtle art of a breakup.Even Left it to us. You just can't say that was made for a mainstream audience. I consider Cage underground to a high extent.

Underground

i agree movies for the blind is a much different record to his 2 latest releases and as you said its probably down to the drugs he was on at the time.i think he even said himself that movies for the blind kind of glorifies drug usage or something along those lines.i think peeranoia stands out on hells winter as its pretty reminiscent of his old work as well.

Boom_Bap

Cage would definitely be considered underground, i don't think that any of his songs where made for commercial success. Perhaps there are one are two that where made with the intention of getting some on Hellz Winter and Depart From Me, maybe to introduce more listeners. But his beats, lyrics, subject matter, content, album artwork, collaborators, record labels etc have all been underground orientated. The couple of songs that might be for radio still are fundamentally very Cage sounding.
Overground/mainstream should not really be considered when discussing Cage in my opinion, I have read alot of interviews with him recently and he hardly considers himself a hip hop artist. When presented with a question on why Depart From Me was so rock sounding, he responded by saying his music is music influenced by Hip Hop amongst other genres and should not be considered Hip Hop. He doesnt want to be pigeonholed to a genre, he just wants to make records that feel natural to him. This is probaly the definition of underground in that he doesnt make music for the masses, but for himself.
Another thing that i read which really caught my attention is that he said that on his early songs and on Music For The Blind, you could replace any verse from any song with any other verse from any other song of his, and it would not change the song. But now he has learned more about his craft and when writing, he doesnt just write a verse but an entire song. Listening to his albums, this is very noticeable.

Makaveli

From an internet point of view he's pretty well known but in real terms he's not. He's not a mainstream rapper because you're not going to see him on television or hear him on the radio. He's not exactly underground though in the same sense that Def Jux isn't underground.