More than anything else, in concerns to creative works and content, I try to find how much passion has been put into a project by its author. I want to know that someone brought their work into the world not only because they thought it was appealing or interesting, but because they felt the insatiable physical need to amass their feelings into some art form that can be felt, heard, seen, or read. Having been a fan and a follower of his career for three years now, I believe that Benjamin Steele, known on the Internet as the one-man show Rusty Cage, qualifies as an intensely passionate artist that anyone should donate some of their time to listen to and watch. I’ve seen many a commenter state that his work is not only “politically incorrect,” “perverse,” or, “downright sacrilegious,” but shows fantastic progression not only in a musical sense but as a satirical human being. Without a doubt, Rusty Cage is an artist that will challenge the school of thought referred to as politically correct, and he will most certainly offend you, but not for the base reasons found in those who recite hate speech or troll others online for laughs. His work dives into material that is dark, weird, and ominously sacred, with the genuine goal of making you laugh at and/or question why some view the world as such a serious, set-in-stone place with issues that some think you just shouldn’t talk about, lest ye invoke some divine wrath that shall smite you where you stand.
Here’s a quick little unloading of all the basic biographical info I have on him. His real name, as mentioned, is Benjamin Steele, and he’s a self-producing musician out of Florida, specifically Gainesville (last time I checked). He was born on January 24th in 1990 and began making music after an encounter with the law when he was sixteen years old. After being caught stealing a slushy machine from a convenience store, he was put under house arrest for six months, and with all the free time that came from that, he taught himself how to play guitar. In one of his videos on his YouTube channel, he states how “…getting arrested for stealing that slushy machine was the best thing that ever happened to [him].” His musical inspiration comes from the works of people such as Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, and Randy Newman, who he describes as having a, “…very American sound,” and how they created a “revival of folk songs,” with their own individual talent and style. The 26-year-old keeps this trend alive with his own specific sound, blending the likes of blues, folk, and gospel, with dark and occult descriptions, woven together with a foreboding, sometimes hip-hop influenced delivery that is present on the two singles and three LPs that he has released. His delivery in the song is akin to the likes of fire-and-brimstone preachers, or an old-timer telling some wandering kids that they’re in the wrong part of town.
Rusty had many of his songs up on his channel, but it wouldn’t be until March 28th of 2013 that I stumbled upon him. A video of his from 2011, “The Knife Game Song,” had garnered increased circulation as more and more people took the challenge into their own hands, literally. The incredibly popular YouTube channel belonging to The Fine Bros featured the original video and some chosen submissions in an episode of YouTuber’s React. I was astounded by his dexterity and speed in five finger filet and mesmerized by his nursery rhyme/drinking song-esque cadence. As of this writing, his original video has 4.6 million views, while the Youtubers React showcase has 25.4 million views, and his own subscriber count continues to rise, attracting more than 155,000 people as regular viewers and listeners.
Rusty Cage is a fantastic spectacle of a person, a YouTuber, and a musical act that I will continue to follow. Times I wonder if he is exaggerating reactions or feelings, whether to poke fun at and bring into question the misplaced sensitivity of others or if he’s playing a role for more views, but his points of view make me ask questions about and laugh at things the most people either avoid in conversation wouldn’t even think of snickering at. Personally, I think he is the embodiment of the phrase: “Art is meant to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.” Or, to put in simpler terms, he’s just fucking weird in the best-goddamned way.
What I have presented you with is just a showcase of someone who I appreciate as a creator. As in the last piece I wrote, this is my own little way of giving credit where credit is due, and I hope that my humble opinion does not cross Mr. Benjamin Steele in the wrong way or paint him in a light that he finds unflattering. If you’d like to dive into his work, I recommend the following songs in no particular order: “Gospel,” “Spare A Dime,” “Ain’t the Man,” Bellevue Boy,” and “Lives of Flies.” You can find a majority of his original work on Spotify from just searching Rusty Cage. He also does fantastic covers of songs like Tom Waits’ “Ice Cream Man” and the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing Ta Fuck Wit” mixed with his own personal sound on his YouTube channel. I will also leave links to his Patreon and Bandcamp pages if you want to support his ventures. Most of the information and quotations present in this article comes directly from his own personal website.
I only hope that his passion and persona will grow, leading to even better sardonic strains and diabolical ditties on the things that go bump in the night, not only in the darkness under our beds and in our closets, but also crammed in the corners of our minds. And when things get too real, he has songs like this.
