Ems whole beef with cage was setup bu the label in order to demolish cage as his first white boy sacrifice because a black battle was a no no. Cage said ems manager and pub would call him to set it up EARLY. Em dissed cage more than any white rapper in beginning. Cage was in no way as popular as i think em was told/thought. In a way, he blew cage up for his ug run.
And he 100% lifted atleast 2-3 lines from cages agent orange AND the pete nice feature. 20 years later em said 3rd bass were idols and he had their albums. So he heard cage. He denied it forever but that 3rd bass interview kinda sealed it.
Cage is a full formed slim shady i hate my mom ima kill people on crazy house mode on that feature. Not typical death rap. Full slim shady. Em also said he listened to stretch n bob tapes when he could and cage/necro were regular guests of the show and he knew cage was on bobs label before be went on up the show and the article on it shows he was worried cage was gonna be there. So lmao.
Combined with how he style morphed off homie from outsidaz during his come up, he studied rappers for his debut and used all he could. Hes a legend. But cages pen was way nicer than ems forced bs.
A necro produced cage album woulda blew away what he did with mighty mi (tho they eventually got it right with leak bros). But then non ohixion/bill wouodnt have gotten them beats.