Merkules

Merkules launched his recording career as a gangsta rapper at the start of the 2010s before gravitating, by decade's end, toward the fluid hip-hop style associated with Drake. The Canadian MC first drew attention through renditions of tracks by heroes such as Eminem and Big Pun, yet it was the original songs on the 2017 album Trust Your Gut and its 2018 follow-up Cole that edged him closer to mainstream recognition. Born Cole Stevenson on September 27, 1992, in Surrey, British Columbia, he developed an early passion for hip-hop but waited until age sixteen to begin composing his own material. Local freestyle appearances, among them the King of the Dot tournament, were initially billed under the name Merk Mikz before he settled on Merkules. At twenty he issued the 2012 album Canadian Bacon, which was succeeded in short order by Bacon Bits. Hunger Pains arrived in 2013, and Scars followed in 2015. Trust Your Gut surfaced in 2017 and Cole came the next year. In 2019 Special Occasion appeared, an album boasting guest contributions from Paul Wall, DMX, Uncle Murda, and additional artists. The project registered on the charts, peaking at number twenty on Billboard's Rap Heatseekers tally.