Merkules & Dax

Initially a gangsta rapper at the dawn of the 2010s, Merkules eventually drifted toward the elastic hip-hop of Drake by the close of the decade. The Canadian rapper built his following with covers of such idols as Eminem and Big Pun, but it was his original material on albums like 2017's Trust Your Gut and 2018's Cole that inched him toward the mainstream. Born Cole Stevenson on September 27, 1992 in Surrey, British Columbia, Merkules was infatuated with hip-hop as a child but didn't start writing his own music until he was 16. He started playing local freestyle gigs, includin...