Cage: his walk on the wild side landed him in restraints. But now his debut is a genre-busting breakout

People often speak of the fine line between brilliance and madness, but 30-year-old rapper Chris Palko, a.k.a. Cage, has done more time negotiating that divide than most. "I was institutionalized from the ages of 16 to 18," he says. "So while all my friends were doing the prom thing, I was in 10-point restraints." After the traumatic 18-month stint, the rapper spent more than a decade rampaging through New York's hip-hop underground, chronicling his unhinged nihilism and building a dedicated fan base. But depression and drug problems constantly threatened to derail his career--until one morning last year when he woke up in the hospital after an overdose of mushrooms and realized he had to get his head right. "The only truths I'd ever let out were the dark things that intrigued me," he says. "This was the first time that I realized there were stories I wanted to tell."

Those stories would eventually become Hell's Winter (Definitive Jux), a record that provides a brutal glimpse into what Palko calls the "making of Cage," from his biological father's heroin habit to physical abuse at the hands of his stepfather. Cage, however, says he is in a better place now. "I got a cool crib, I got a nice car, I tour with my best friends--yeah, I would say I'm happy."

Peter Rubin is a Brooklyn-based writer.

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