{"id":6923,"date":"2025-07-26T01:44:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T05:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/?p=6923"},"modified":"2025-07-26T01:44:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T05:44:39","slug":"merkules-in-a-time-of-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/merkules-au-temps-des-bad-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Merkules, in the time of \u201cBad News\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Canadian rapper <strong>Merkules<\/strong>, his real name <strong>Cole Stevenson<\/strong>, hails from Surrey, British Columbia. His music isn&#039;t just about partying or success, but also touches on deep, personal topics. It&#039;s these honesties that give his songs real power and resonate with his target audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">\u201cBad News\u201d: A New Chapter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On July 24th, <strong>Merkules<\/strong> unveiled his latest music video entitled <strong><em>Bad News<\/em><\/strong>, released at the end of July 2025, quickly gained attention for its raw energy and cathartic lyrics, in which the artist expresses his resilience in the face of the ups and downs of life and work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This piece is a continuation of his last album <em><strong>Survivor&#039;s Guilt<\/strong><\/em>. <strong>Merkules<\/strong> continues to progress without ever losing that personal touch that makes it so charming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3RX8lRbQ7rK9qcJ8WsQ6Y6?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">1 billion views: a historic record<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this year, Merkules reached a symbolic milestone: he surpassed 1 billion views on his YouTube channel. <strong>Young Merkules<\/strong>, with over 342 videos since his debut in 2011. While no single solo track has reached this number on its own, it is his entire output, including his many viral remixes, that has allowed him to achieve this remarkable performance. Notably, his rap cover of the hit <em><strong>Old Town Road<\/strong><\/em> by <strong>Lil Nas X<\/strong> and <strong>Billy Ray Cyrus<\/strong>, published in 2019, remains one of his biggest successes with nearly 70 million views alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This billion views consecrates <strong>Merkules<\/strong> as a heavyweight in independent rap, recognized not only for its longevity and productivity, but also for the exceptional loyalty of its community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Building on this success, <strong>Merkules<\/strong> released the album in early 2025 <strong><em>Survivor&#039;s Guilt<\/em><\/strong>, marked by numerous large-scale collaborations (<strong>Shaquille O&#039;Neal<\/strong>, <strong>Afroman<\/strong>, <strong>Classified<\/strong>, <strong>D12<\/strong>, and more). His ability to renew himself while remaining close to his roots makes him a reference in Canadian and international Hip-Hop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-97d9fa7c673cd0a280cc2997802ce37b wp-block-paragraph\">Download the app <strong>Magazine Hip-Hop<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/ca\/app\/magazine-hip-hop\/id6746479131?l=fr-CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>App Store<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Reseau-social-Hip-Hop-1024x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6845\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Reseau-social-Hip-Hop-1024x169.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Reseau-social-Hip-Hop-300x50.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Reseau-social-Hip-Hop-768x127.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Reseau-social-Hip-Hop-1536x254.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Reseau-social-Hip-Hop-2048x338.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Reseau-social-Hip-Hop-18x3.jpg 18w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He released the album Survivor&#039;s Guilt in early 2025, marked by numerous major collaborations (Shaquille O&#039;Neal, Afroman, Classified, D12, and more).<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":6925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[679,670,678,606,1128,1742,330],"class_list":["post-6923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada","tag-actualites","tag-hip-hop","tag-journal","tag-magazine-hip-hop","tag-media","tag-merkules","tag-rap"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6923"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6960,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6923\/revisions\/6960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magazinehiphop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}