OTTAWA, ON–In Ottawa, Ontario, you might see musician Dead Hendrix driving around the Canadian capital writing his next track.
The 21-year-old, whose sound fuses a mix between pop punk and rap—inspired by discovering hip-hop in middle school and a long-term love of bands such as Green Day and Blink 182—has been writing since he was a child, notably deemed “gifted” in school for creative writing, and has now utilized that skill in his music.
“I feel like a lot of musicians get their start into music by being able to make beats, or play an instrument, or to sing,” says Dead Hendrix. “For me, it was really writing that opened the gates into music.”
Dead Hendrix wrote music in high school but quit briefly, deleting all of his work online until during the pandemic when he heard the song “Red Dot Music” by Mac Miller and Action Bronson. Inspired by the track, his 2022 EP with Levi Zadoff Dead Summer EP write about loss, drug abuse, and the isolation period during covid.
“It was [written] in the COVID era and that feeling of being alone and about drug use because that's what I was going through at the time,” explains Dead Hendrix.
“Mustang,” his lead single on an upcoming album still in the works, features rapper Yung Cudi. Dead Hendrix was unsure if Yung Cudi would be interested in his rock-rap hybrid and after recording the track sat with it for a year. He eventually sent the track over and got positive feedback, featuring Young Cudi on the middle verse of the song. The song currently has over 17k streams on Spotify.
“It took the track to a whole new level. It rounded it out and went from being a punk rap song to this perfect mix of punk influenced rap and street R&B rap,” says Dead Hendrix. “You would think the sound would work, but it works perfectly.”
While Dead Hendrix has performed recently in San Francisco and travels to Los Angeles frequently, he says that his home town has a music scene thriving with support for his work. He’s currently set to be a part of the album out June 24th titled Ottawa X Toronto, featuring upcoming rappers in Ottawa collaborating with upcoming Toronto rappers. Dead Hendrix is featured on a track with group Three in French.
“You don't hear much about it, but there's a surprisingly large hip hop scene here, like in Canada after Toronto. I think Ottawa's got the biggest hip hop scene. We've got hugely established artists from Ottawa and there's a lot of talent who are coming up right now.”
Be sure to follow Dead Hendrix on all platforms below.
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