Cage has announced and released a trailer for his Destroy The Archetype tour, which you can see below. Dates for the 40 city North American trek can be seen here. Additional support from Sam Hill, Sadistik, and Maul Skull.

On 2003′s Weatherproof EP, Cage lamented on “Haterama”, “Even Bobbito said ‘Fuck it I quit’.” At the time, the indy hip-hop scene was in full swing, despite Stretch & Bobbito’s retirement from a scene they largely helped create. The movement would still flourish healthily for another five years, built upon the sales of 12″ vinyl and albums from labels like Eastern Conference and Def Jux, that were much stronger than what was being offered in the major label market. At that time, Cage, his crew – and his competitors – showed no signs of slowing down. Then the internet happened.

While file-sharing was still a bit of a fairly new concept at the time, the people it the hardest were the indie artists and retailers. Album leaks killed the CD market, while Serato and digital DJ platforms killed the vinyl. HipHopSite.Com witnessed this first hand, as CD and vinyl sales would steadily decline over the next few years, leading to a cease of its retail operations. Distributors like Fat Beats and Caroline (the biggest indie distributor at the time) soon followed suit, and eventually both of Cage’s labels – Eastern Conference and Definitive Jux Records – would fold too, among many others. The move to digital music wasn’t the only paradigm shift the indie hip-hop scene wasn’t ready for, but many agree that this is the one common thread where the industry failed as whole.

Cage’s last album, Depart From Me, released in 2009, was one of the last albums to be released under the Definitive Jux banner. While the label was battling its own financial issues at the time, the fact that this record received mixed reviews did not help the matter. Cage was experiencing a successful stint in the indie rock scene, and this record resonated with it, finding a whole new audience for the longtime underground rapper. However the backpack audience did not appreciate the shift, as it moved too far away from his original sound. His second album, Hell’s Winter, seemed to be the sweet spot of meshing the genres, that almost everyone dug.

Fast forward to 2013, it seems like it’s been a lifetime since we heard a new album from Cage, despite the fact that not even five years have passed. With so many institutions of indie hip-hop disappearing, we almost assumed that we might never hear from Cage again. But last year, news popped up that Cage was back working with longtime producer Mighty Mi, and he would soon release a new album on Eastern Conference Records.

The first offering from Cage and Mighty Mi was “The Void”, a dubstep fueled collaboration with vocalist Sherry St. Germaine, produced by Michael Mayeda. While the track was dope, and was a success, cracking the hip-hop charts on Beaport, Cage and Milo ultimately decided that it wasn’t them, and took things back to basics for the sound of Kill The Architect. The end result is a resounding success, as Cage has created one of the best albums of his career.

The sound of Kill The Architect is all it’s own, as he doesn’t try to remake Movies For The Blind, nor does it bleed into rock territory as he did on Hell’s Winter. It’s a complete 180 from Depart From Me, and presents the darker, twisted side of Cage that we haven’t heard from in years, over raw, yet melodic hip-hop beats.

The biggest change here is how understated the production is. Many of the tracks are very sparse and laid back, such as the disturbing opening track, “Lamb Of Nothing”, which finds Cage setting the stage with lines like “Up to no good like the night before Halloween / Put your fuckin mask on and follow me / Through the colony / Marijuana all in me / Still cold and evil / Throw your kids off a cliff like a golden eagle.” Yes, Cage is back.

He carries a largely apathetic attitude towards things, however this does not stunt his lyrics in the slightest. His cavalier, uncaring attitude comes out on songs like “Fuck This Game” and “They Suck”, saying out loud the things that many of us only think about. This might be best displayed on the somber “You Were The Shit (In High School)”, a condescending list of comparisons between himself and the random bros.

Milo digs deep to pull out some off kilter grooves on tracks like “Cursed” and “In Your Fur”, showing he has not lost his knack for hip-hop production over the years, and if anything, has improved. Songs like “Watch Me” and “Road Kill” bring back a sound long lost, while the production dips back into his heavier Hell’s Winter style on songs like “The Hunt” and “This Place”, both likely mined from some respectable rock records.

While Cage has said that tracks from Depart From Me draw the biggest response at his shows, that album’s new sound came at a price of some of his longtime followers. Yet an artist’s evolution is to be expected, and with Kill The Architect, he comes full circle. He doesn’t try to relive past glories, whether that be any of his previous records, he simply builds upon the foundation of his catalog. While the indie hip-hop scene may have seen it’s best days some years ago, Cage proves that true artistry will always prevail.

Shia Labeouf sent out a mysterious Tweet this weekend that read:

“A hungry dog hunts best. #killthearchitect @Cagewm @eliroth @ASAPYams @ChillerTV @marilynmanson We start in January.”

HipHopSite has confirmed with Kill The Architect album producer DJ Mighty Mi that a short film project called Kill The Architect is in the works, and will involve all names mentioned in the Tweet: Cage, Eli Roth, Shia, Asap Yams, Marilyn Manson, for Chiller TV. Milo says that new music *may* accompany the project.

In this interview, we speak with Cage and producer DJ Mighty Mi about their new record, Kill The Architect, available now on Eastern Conference Records. We also talk about the critical response to Depart From Me, Stanley Kubrick, working with Shia Labeouf, the demise of the indie hip-hop era, and more.

Should we do a graphic content warning? Cage delivers a new video in tandem with his just released Kill The Architect LP, appropriately on Halloween. This track is included exclusively on the iTunes deluxe edition.

Cage’s new album on Eastern Conference Records, Kill The Architect, will hit stores tomorrow. Stream the entire thing below.

Cage gives us another preview of his new album, Kill The Architect, hitting October 22nd on Eastern Conference.

From the forthcoming Kill The Architect LP, due October 22nd.

Produced by Mighty Mi and Slugworth. Cage’s Kill The Architect is coming Oct 22nd on Eastern Conference Records.

Cage prepares for his return to the scene with the release of “The Hunt”, the first song from his upcoming album Kill The Architect which will hit stores on October 22nd. The album also marks the return of longtime NYC indy label Eastern Conference Records, the imprint with which Cage worked to release a number of albums including his critically acclaimed debut Movies For The Blind. The project also finds long time collaborator and Eastern Conference head Mighty Mi back behind the boards for the majority of the project.

Today, Seattle rapper Sadistik is releasing his first solo record since 2008, Flowers For My Father, via Fake Four, Inc. To celebrate the release of the album, Sadistik is also unveiling the video for the latest single from Flowers, “Russian Roulette,” which features Cage and Yes Alexander.

The video, premiered this afternoon by VIBE, is a direct reflection of the subject matter in “Russian Roulette.” “Both Cage and myself have a lot of material dealing with bitter breakups and unstable women, so I wanted the video to reflect that,” says Sadistik. “I wanted to show a vulnerability and fear towards women hurting a man.”

When writing the treatment, Sadistik wanted the video to show a dark take on a revenge story, a nod to some of the genres and films that have inspired him throughout his life. The video was also co-directed by Terrence Santos, who also directed the “City In Amber” video, and the two again gelled well with a shared vision for the video “Terrence is well-aware of my appreciation and knowledge of film so it was easy to work together and achieve the style we wanted,” notes Sadistik, name-dropping directors like Stanley Kubrick and others as inspiration. ” I wanted this to have a heavy Grindhouse /Exploitation film feel.”

Today, as MHz Legacy continues to celebrate the release of their self-titled debut album, they’re taking part in the tradition of Throwback Thursday with one of the rarest songs from their vaults, “The Only Weathermen Song.” The song, accompanied here by new, exclusive artwork, stands apart as a classic from the early 2000s era of hip-hop and marks one of the only times that Copywrite, El-P, Camu Tao, Tage Future, Cannibal Ox, Jakki Da Motamouth, and Yak Ballz (otherwise known as The Weathermen) were all in one studio at the same time.

Reminiscing on the song, Copywrite says:

“Back in 2001, 2002, Camu and I where living in Middletown, New York. Cage lived there too, which is why I moved out there. We where supposed to go on a tour with all of the Eastern Conference Records artists, but Mad Skillz pulled out to vacation, so the tour fell through. Cage wasn’t too fond of Camu back then but ‘Mu expressed to me how bad he wanted to go to pursue music with me and I told him to come along. In those days, we would always drive my Ford Explorer from Middletown to Manhattan to record at DJ Mighty Mi’s spot on Lexington, and then we’d go visit El-P in Brooklyn and crash for several nights at a time. Vast Aire and Vordul Mega, of Cannibal Ox, had their own room downstairs and El’s studio was right next door, so there was always music going on.”

“This song was recorded around the time I was working on my debut album, The High Exhaulted, and Cannibal Ox was working on their album, The Cold Vein. It was a rare occasion to have Tage Future, Camu Tao, Jakki Da Motamouth, Cage, Cannibal Ox, El-P, and myself all in the same room at once, so I told them we needed to seize the moment and record something. El started pulling up beats and we all instantly agreed on this one. The beat played and we wrote – whoever had their verse first hit the mic booth, which, at that time, was El-P’s closet, and the rest is history. Camu was probably smokin’ a blunt with Vordul, so neither of them is on the song; I don’t know why El didn’t drop a verse. Back then we titled it “The Only Weathermen Song,” since it was so tough to get all of us together at the same time.”

Cage previews new music from his upcoming Speak Of the Devil LP, which he explained on Twitter today as being “for Cage fans that prefer (his) earlier works of the macabre like Movies For The Blind.” He will release another cut from it this weekend, with “See You In Hell” (below), being produced by @FstLane.

He also clarified that his EP with DJ Mighty Mi will be called Kill The Architect, suggesting it will be “more of a Hell’s Winter thing, as is all new Cage, except for Sam Hill.”

Mighty Mi sits down with DJ Pizzo of HipHopSite.Com to discuss what he’s been up to since leaving NYC. Setting up shop in Vegas, Milo now spins weekly at Surrender/Encore Beach Club in Las Vegas. He also discusses his new electronic imprint, Tribute The Label, as well as reuniting with Cage for a new EP.

First single off of Cage’s upcoming EP Illuminated: Kill The Architect. Produced by Mighty Mi. For classic Cage fans… The Cutting Room Floor EP/ is soon to follow.

I will say this… I like the Gapsar Noe reference and after hearing Cage’s ode to A Serbian film I am suspicious that he may have access to my DVD library.