KAU trio., Cage, and Jakob Bänsch

Palko was born and spent the first four years of his life in Würzburg, Germany, until his father was discharged from the West German military base where he was stationed, and the family returned to the U.S. After a tumultuous childhood of beatings, drug use and school expulsions, Palko was put in a psychiatric hospital for 16 months and wrongly placed on a drug called fluoxetine, which prompted the teenager to become suicidal and attempt to end his own life.

Upon being released age 18, Palko began rapping under the pseudonym “Alex” after the protagonist in the Anthony Burgess novel “A Clockwork Orange”. The rapper started making a name for himself in the New York underground scene and earned associations with KMD, Kurious Jorge, and Pete Nice, the latter of which Palko appeared on his 1993 album “Dust to Dust”.

In 1997 the rapper signed with Fondle ‘Em Records who issued a single with the songs “Radiohead” and “Agent Orange”, both of which became popular and earned critical acclaim. Palko subsequently released the album “Porn Again” in collaboration with Mr. Eon and DJ Mighty Mi, which peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. In 2002, the rapper signed with Eastern Conference Records and released his debut solo album “Movies for the Blind”, which Palko dubbed as being “crazy for the sake of being crazy”, and was followed by another collaboration as the group The Weatherman, who released the album “The Conspiracy” in 2003.

Cage’s follow-up solo album “Hell’s Winter” arrived in 2005, which peaked at No. 26 on the Top Heatseekers and featured a more open writing style, not limiting himself to a character. In 2009 Palka’s third studio album “Depart from Me” hit the shelves, and was noted for the lack of sampling and introduction of guitar and synthesiser sounds. The album spawned the single “I Never Knew You”, which earned a video directed by Shia Labeouf.

After contributing to Kid Cudi’s second album with the track “Maniac”, Palko started a project with Sean Martin called We Sold Our Souls and released their first single “Super Baked” in 2012. In 2013 the rapper released the album “Kill the Architect” on Eastern Conference Records, which peaked at No. 46 on the U.S Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart.