Sadistik speaks with Cage on URB’s Cross Check.
Sadistik: Who’s the worst local opener you’ve ever had and how big were his cargo shorts?
Cage: I remember one guy just rapping to other people’s instrumentals for almost an hour. He poured bags of chips in one cargo pant short leg pocket and like trail mix in the other. A bottle of beer was in his front pocket. He was like a rapping lazy boy chair.
Sadistik: What’s the defining moment when you know someone’s a groupie?
Cage: When they say “I’m not a groupie.”
Sadistik: Do you have a defense strategy for random fan-freestyle attacks when you’re on the road?
Cage: I’ll start beat-boxing at 220 BPMs.
Sadistik: What’s the best & worst drug experience you’ve had while on tour?
Cage: I took so much Vicodin not knowing it was restricting my vocal chords and blew my voice out several times. It was like performing with a slit throat. I was very unprofessional early on and I suspect it may have had something to do with all the drugs. As for the best experiences, they are all the best. I’m on stage and people are paying to see me play music. That’s the best high anyway.
Cage flips the Cross Check script, as he interviews Sadistik.
Cage: What is it about being on the road that makes you feel like you’re on the run for committing mass murders or any other federal offense?
Sadistik: Being in a new city every day selling things for cash to avoid taxes while using a moniker might have something to do with it.
Cage: Do you like performing more to people’s phones or faces?
Sadistik: I understand wanting to capture a certain moment or song on your phone, but that shit is so annoying when people film the entire set on their iPhone. It immediately makes the interaction feel disingenuous because they’re focused on posterity instead of the performance.
Cage: How do you deal with taking dumps when most of the bathrooms are horror shows?
Sadistik: Ah man, that’s one of my least favorite aspects of touring. The ladies’ room is always cleaner, never go for the last stall if you can help it, and always have hand sanitizer on deck and hope for the best.
Cage: How do you eat healthy traveling across the country when so many states legally serve food designed to make you sick?
Sadistik: I don’t, I just roll with the punches. When I order sugar-free syrup with my coffee I’m basically saying I’d prefer risking cancer to getting fat. So it goes.
Cage: How do you smoke weed across the country when so many states classify marijuana as a schedule 1 drug like cocaine or heroin and will lock you up and end your tour for smoking a joint?
Sadistik: Don’t jinx us, man. We’ll have the spirits of Washington, Colorado and California to protect us.
Cage: How has this business changed you for the better and for the worse?
Sadistik: Damn, that’s complicated. I guess being a part of this business has caused me to be more ambitious and vigilant with my craft, but I’m not sure how much it’s improved my personal life. The deeper I get into music the more isolated and unifocused I seem to become and I feel more disconnect from people than usual. It brings out the extremes in me I guess.
