Ottawa rapper Dax was already accustomed to going viral before his controversial “Dear God” video took off this year. He plays Catch One this week, so we chatted…

L.A. WEEKLY: You’ve had a lot of success on YouTube with a massive amount of streams — how do you stand out from the crowd?

DAX: I always tell people that the moment you try to stand out, you end up fitting in. I always try to remain myself. I use the talents that  work on and, marketing-wise, think about what are the current trends, if there’s anything I could do. When you’re starting out, if you have no following at all on there, I would recommend doing a couple of remixes of popular songs. Do a really good job of destroying those songs, so people watching as you build your own following, that’s when you give them your own original content and over time, it grows and grows. I tell people all the time, you’ve got to fuck with the people who fuck with you. I’ve done a good job of that — always giving back to the community and the people that messed with me. 

The video for “Dear God” is really ambitious — what role does faith play in your life?

Faith is everything. I think the ability to walk on a path and not know where it’s going with your eyes closed is a lost art. A lot of people are scared because everybody wants the end result before they get to it. They want to know how something’s going to turn out and to be able to walk and not know where it ends up is tough. So faith is important. Not only believing in myself but believing in God. You’re not gonna see or hear him. But it’s still walking on that path. Faith is super huge.

Some might say the video is blasphemous. Did you get any feedback like that?

Oh yeah. There is even one page dedicated to calling me the antichrist. It’s just the world. I hate people who look at things like that. They see it in the video, but the lyrics are super clear. 

Do you enjoy playing L.A.?

Last time I played L.A. it was with TechN9ne, and that was a great experience at the Novo. The crowd was messing with me and it was so much fun. 

What can we expect from this set?

Dax gives an energy that is unmatched. I’m not perfect, I make jokes, mistakes happen, but at the end of the day I go hard.

When that’s done, what’s next?

I’m not even thinking about next year. 2019 is just getting started for me. I got Self-Proclaimed coming out on Thursday, a Canadian tour in December, three more songs dropping — I’m really trying to destroy 2019. I’m not even sure what 2020 will bring — a lot of things like an EP.

Dax plays at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 29 at Catch One.

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