Rising Rap Star Dax Says He Wants to Be the 'Drake of Poetry' and Help Men Feel 'Heard' (Exclusive)
The rapper — who addresses societal expectations in his music — opens up in a new interview with PEOPLE about his latest single "A Real Man"
Desmond K Ye
DaxDax dives into the perceived gender role placed upon men in "A Real Man"
"My goal for when men hear it is to feel heard," he tells PEOPLE
The musician says his passion was sparked at the age of 22 after he took a poetry class
Rising country and rap star Dax released a new single, "A Real Man," last month, following in the path of some of his latest music that focuses on deep-rooted societal issues that many artists have yet to explore.
On "A Real Man," he dives into the perceived gender role placed upon men to be the provider and "strong one" in a relationship. But as Dax points out in his latest music, that notion is often not reality.
"My goal for when men hear it is to feel heard," Dax tells PEOPLE about the message he hopes to spread. “And luckily there's a lot of women who are going to hear it too. So my goal is really to create an understanding for women as to what men are going through, because I don't think men want sympathy for what they're going through. They just want understanding.”
"A Real Man" is Dax's second-most listened-to track since he won Top Selling Canadian Single of the Year in 2023 for his song "Dear Alcohol."
While he's best known for his music now, the musician says his passion was sparked at the age of 22 after he took a poetry class and discovered his love for the written word.
The 30-year-old artist started his career working on beats from top artists such as Tupac Shakur, Eminem and JAY-Z in the hopes of building an understanding of music through consistency and repetition.
“So it was an acceleration of skill, practice, just constantly writing, constantly putting pen to paper," says Dax. “And then at a period of time, I wanted to be — my goal, my overall goal — I want to be the Drake of poetry. That was my goal. I didn't want to rap because I didn't see a place for myself in rap, because how I grew up... I didn't see any of that in the industry."
Though Dax’s music doesn't fit into one particular genre — his sound draws influence from country, hip hop and more — the star says he's led by specific songs and his mission to spread his "poetry," rather than trying to fit into a specific box.
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“I've always just liked to do what comes naturally,” says Dax. “It's like some people, I remember when I first had ‘Dear Alcohol,’ and that was sort of country, people put it in a genre. But on my end of the spectrum, I was just doing what comes naturally. And at that point [when I wrote it], I felt like I had a little bit of a drinking problem, so there was no rhyme or reason to the way it sounds.”
Dax will continue to tour with Lucas Joyner throughout the rest of the month and revealed he still has many songs planned for the rest of the year.
“I don't know what I want to win,” he says of what he hopes to achieve. “I don't really know. But I just think these songs are really well written, performed really well, that they deserve something if we're speaking music. So that's my only goal. And then just keep impacting more people is really just the biggest thing — one person at a time.”
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