Daniel Nwosu Jr. (born March 22, 1994), professionally known by his stage nameDax (often stylized in all caps), is a Nigerian-Canadian rapper and singer-songwriter.[3]
Early life
Daniel Nwosu Jr. was born to immigrant Nigerian parents on March 22, 1994, in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Nwosu grew up in Ottawa and moved to Wichita, Kansas to attend university. Nwosu attended Casper College in Casper, Wyoming during the 2013-2014 school year, where he played on the basketball team. He then attended the Newman University, where he played guard for the Newman Jets basketball team.[4][5] He initially wrote poetry and was a motivational speaker prior to pursuing a rap career. During his time at Newman University, he worked as a janitor, a job where he says that he was able to develop his poetry and rap skills during downtime.[6][7]
Career
After receiving positive feedback from a basketball teammate about his poetry in 2016, he began releasing and promoting music through his SoundCloud account, releasing his mixtape 2pac Reincarnation Vol 2: As Told By Dax in 2017. He rose to prominence after the release of the official music video for his song "Cash Me Outside" featuring Danielle Bregoli.[8]
In August 2018, he released his first EP, entitled It’s Different Now which features guest appearances from other rappers including O.T. Genasis and Futuristic. The following year, he was featured on Hopsin's song "You Should've Known".[9] In June 2019, he went on "It goes up" tour with Tech N9ne and then later announced his first solo headlining tour "It's Different Now Tour" via Instagram and scheduled to tour in October across America and Canada.[10]
In 2020, he released a 7-track EP, I'll Say It for You, which received generally positive reviews and was preceded by the single "Dear God".[11][12] Later that year he released two more singles, "Faster" featuring Tech N9ne and "I don't want another sorry" featuring Trippie Redd.[13][14][15] In April 2020, he released the single "Coronavirus (State Of Emergency)", which was written about the COVID-19 pandemic.[16]
In July 2021, Dax released a sequel to "Dear God" called "Child of God".[17] In the following month, he announced his debut studio album and released "Propaganda" featuring Tom Macdonald as album's lead single.[18] The song peaked at number 15 on the Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart and at number 9 on the Rap Digital Song Sales chart.[19][20] In early October 2021, album's third single "40 Days, 40 Nights" featuring Nasty C was released.[21][22] On October 15, 2021, his debut studio album Pain Paints Paintings was released digitally through Living Legends Entertainment.[23]
In April 2024, Dax announced he was opening for Joyner Lucas's Not Now I'm Busy tour, which he became a headliner in. In 2024, he performed at several state fairs.[31][32]
Artistry
Style and influence
Initially, Dax did not take rap seriously because of his interest in basketball but there was a phase where he grew up listening to Tupac. He was never really a hip-hop enthusiast but he started listening when Drake took over the scene. Dax has also cited artists like 50 Cent and Lil Wayne. He compares his style to artists such as Tech N9ne, Eminem, and Hopsin.[8]
Feuds
KSI
On November 18, 2018, KSI appeared on the What's Good? Podcast, where he called out various internet rappers. In the interview KSI said both Quadeca and Dax were worse than him at rapping. Quadeca went on to post a full diss track against him on November 23, 2018, called "Insecure". Shortly after, Dax also responded with his own diss track, which was a remix of Eminem's diss track toward Machine Gun Kelly, "Killshot". KSI then responded to Dax and Quadeca's track with a reaction video, also accompanied by a diss track called "Ares".[citation needed]
He challenged Dax to a private boxing match, with Dax accepting but repeatedly delaying it. He then later appeared on Deji's diss track "Unforgivable" against KSI.[33][34]
Tory Lanez
On January 24, 2019, Tory Lanez claimed through a tweet that he is the "best rapper alive".[35] Dax responded by posting a video on YouTube, featuring a diss track titled "I'm Not Joyner Or Don Q" aimed at him.[36] Lanez posted a video on Instagram in response in which he pressures Dax to apologize for the diss track. Dax addressed the situation in interviews with DJ Akademiks, Impaulsive, and No Jumper, saying that apologizing was the right thing to do because he did not want a fight to break out.[37]