A helluva movie could be made about the life of rapper Cage (Chris Palko)—one that would make 8 Mile and Get Rich or Die Tryin ' seem like Disney fodder. In brief: Cage's Germany-based MP dad had his young son tie up his arm so he could shoot junk; dad went to jail when Cage was eight; his stepfather beat him; Cage became a drug-gobbling brawler and got arrested often; and he spent 18 months as a Prozac guinea pig in Stony Lodge Psychiatric Hospital (which made him suicidal). Emerging from the institution at 18, Cage embarked on a rapping odyssey, armed with enough horrid tales to fill several notebooks.

In 1993, Cage met Pete Nice and guested on the 3rd Bass MC's Dust to Dust album. Nice introduced Cage to New York radio legends Bobbito Garcia and Stretch Armstrong, on whose show Cage made indelible impressions, building a rep for harrowing content and twisted imagery.

Following the 1997 "Agent Orange" single on Garcia's Fondle 'Em Records, Cage issued Porn Again in 2001 with his Smut Peddlers crew, then released 2002's Movies for the Blind and 2003's Weatherproof for the Eastern Conference label. Cage played up his crazy-delinquent persona, making Slim Shady look discreet. However, Cage tired of these shock tactics and reassessed his creative direction with Def Jux founder/master producer El-P. Their fruitful sessions culminate in Hell's Winter.

Besides El-P's valuable input behind the boards, Hell's Winter benefits from production by beat wizards DJ Shadow, RJD2, Camu Tao, and Blockhead, with guitar and bass accompaniment by Matt Sweeney and Yo La Tengo's James McNew. These talents have forged lugubrious backdrops with beats as punchy as Cage's vicious verbal jabs.

On "Grand Ol' Party Crash," Cage waxes political (featuring Jello Biafra); while the track is more acute than most rappers' editorializing, antiwar rants aren't Cage's forte. Fortunately, most of Winter deals with Cage's personal turmoil, which he renders with piercing detail and poignancy.

Now if Scorsese can clear some time to shoot the bio flick...