Not all wars are fought with guns. Some battles are waged in traffic jams, in empty kitchens, or in the hollow space between a scream and a whisper at 2 a.m. Dax's latest single "Soldier" featuring Tom MacDonald doesn’t march with a drumbeat of victory; it crawls, it scratches, it survives. Written for anyone wrestling with life’s demons—the internal kind, the ones that don't...

The fiercely independent, Idaho-raised rapper nick! channels a deeply overstimulated, restless frequency on his new EP, "GEEKED!". Born in 2006 and building a fervent following entirely without industry co-signs, he occupies an interesting lane in new-wave underground hip-hop. His music sounds precisely like the brain chemistry of an internet-raised creative processing the blinding speed of newfound success. He writes and produces melodic, hard-hitting rap...