“It’s the best thing I’ve done in my whole life,” he said. In front of us, a set of statues recreated Jose Rizal’s execution. The 27-year-old rapper flashed a cheeky smile. “The very historical ‘backshot.’”

The album name was made to warrant double-takes. “The joker guy in me says, ‘Tawagin mong “Backshots” para ‘pag ininterview ka, g*guhin mo, sabihin mo revenge of the writer ‘to for Jose Rizal,” he explained. But this is the revenge of Waiian, too: while his intention of making listeners think remains unchanged, he switched out his longer verses and complex metaphors for simpler language and catchier production. 

While his previous album, 2023’s “Weyaat?”, took two years, “Backshots” was finished in three months. This was partly because he wanted to release it in time for the Wanderland Arts and Music Festival earlier this year, but also because he knew exactly what he wanted to say this time around. ‘’Di ako tulad ng ibang artist na I have to put out music every month to stay relevant, kasi na-discover ko sa simula pa lang na there’s a secret ingredient I put in my music na never malalaos. That ingredient is truth,” Waiian said. “Damn! Napa-damn ako d’on ah.”

It’s typical for songwriters to pull from their own lives, but there’s an emotional vulnerability in Waiian’s oeuvre not often seen in his hip-hop peers. When he started making music, he admitted his first goal was to be a “role model to children.” “I was f***ing 19 years old (when I started)! It’s a hoax, I’m not Jesus. Sobrang dami ring f***ed up sa’kin at kailangan kong sabihin sa mundo ‘yon if I really want to be speaking of the truth.”

Waiian had always been an imaginative child. His mom is a fashion designer and painter; that night in Luneta, he was driving us to his uncle’s painting exhibition in Diliman. It was never lost on him that one can live off art. 

Growing up, he spent hours at the skate park across their home in Makati, meeting different kinds of people. “I feel like a f***ing child of the creative world,” he said. In high school, Waiian made short films as part of Listen Now, Opinions Later, a production team with his friends. They were constant winners at campus competitions until college came around, and they had to get “realistic” degrees. Wanting to still work with cameras and writing, he took up broadcasting. 

When friends started graduating and adulthood seemed closer than ever, he questioned what he really wanted to do. “‘Pag nagsusulat ako ng music, parang nag-aapoy ako sa loob. I’ve never felt anything like this ever, in my whole life.” So he told his mom, which gave him an ultimatum: one year to make it work or get back to studying. It took him two years.

“Naging number one priority ko (‘yung music). Nung nagka-girlfriend ako, sabi ko ‘Mahal kita, pero priority ko talaga ang music,” he recalled. This girlfriend is Misha Salud, who co-founded record label Lightning in a Bottle (LIAB) Studios with Waiian. Misha balances being the label’s managing director and artist manager with a full-time job as a head barista; fans know her as a mainstay at Waiian’s shows and an oft-namedropped muse. “Daming pumorma sa’yo, ako naka-pambahay lang,” quips Waiian in fan favorite Softie.

A communications graduate, Misha became Waiian’s “regulator” in the business side of music, the rapper admitting formal writing is not his forte. “Premium tambay lang ako eh, marunong mag-English pero hindi ko kaya ‘yan. (Misha is) my anchor and my compass.”

Waiian first made waves in the scene as part of the cult favorite rap group Kartell’em. His success was only going up from there, eventually releasing his first solo album “Good Problems” in 2020. Everything came to a halt when, that same year, his best friend took his own life.

The pair grew up together, Waiian being a self-described “soft kid” while his best friend was “a badass.” “Bago girl niya every week; ako (in) two years, isa lang nililigawan ko, basted pa ‘ko.”

“I always promised (my best friend) na ‘pag labas na ‘yung album ko, gala kami, kasi gan’on ‘yung mindset ko. Grind then play,” he recalled. “Nawala ‘yung gana ko (nung nawala siya). Parang wala naman pala ‘tong music sh*t na ‘to kung papabayaan mo mga kaibigan mo.”

It’s part of why he called his next album “Weyaat?” – a stylized “Where you at?” – since he felt he had lost himself. For “Backshots,” the album art shows Waiian standing atop a skyscraper with an open beer bottle and a half-burnt candle. He explained what it means to him: “You’re done grieving, but you’re still in that ‘Ah, f**k’ feeling of numbing down the pain.”

“It still hurts, pero napagtanto ko na I’d rather feel this pain than never to have met that friend at all. I miss him every day. I still see his mom all the time.”

This sheds new light on the recurrence of mortality across his work. “Weyaat?” is his most emotionally vulnerable album; on the track Smile, he raps, “I wanna buy a gun and never use it / God I got a question / When I die, will I still hear the music?”

While “Backshots” takes itself less seriously – “Premium kulit,” as the rapper described – the motifs of life and death are still everywhere. Its opener is titled after his birthday, Aug. 27, and simulates a hospital birth. “Tell me, is it a boy or a girl?” says a female voice in the minute-long track. Waiian, posing as a doctor, replies, “It’s lods,” the colloquial term for “idol.”

The album ends with Bounce Na ‘Ko Man, featuring an interlude where Waiian sings “R.I.P.” to those he wishes to bid goodbye to: venues he’d performed in that have since closed, some friends, even Misha’s cats. “They will live forever in these songs,” he said. The rest of the track is essentially a love letter to his friends and the memories he built with them. “When I die, funeral service dalawang araw na traffic,” he raps. 

“Na-realize ko na ‘pag lasing na lasing ako, (nagsasabi ako ng) ‘T*ngina ‘tol, mahal na mahal kita.’ Kailangan ko pa bang malasing para sabihin ‘yon? So sober me, nilagay na ‘yon sa kanta. I really mean what I say. Marami akong pagmamahal sa puso ko.”

I asked if he ever noticed that mortality constantly pops up in his verses. He said that earlier in the afternoon, while we were taking photos in the Rizal Monument, he overheard a child asking his father who the man in the statue was. “Partida legend na ‘yan ah, nasa piso na ‘yan! Pa’no pa kaya ‘yung mga simpleng kanta ko lang?”

So much of “Backshots,” too, is an ode to his friends. In Si Lods na Bahala, he reassures the people around him that his success is meant to be shared. “I’ve got the same friends since 2013,” he sings in the catchy chorus. “I don’t live with my mama, my mama lives with me.”

These days, he’s kept busy by LIAB, his record label with Misha. The two built it to share their experiences and connections with other artists – people who “really care about what they’re doing.”

He was also still reeling from playing one of the biggest shows of his life at Wanderland. Fellow rapper Flow G congratulated Waiian, saying it was also his dream to play at the festival. “Iba talaga ‘yung pinasok kong linya sa rap, kasi kahit si Al James at Flow G ‘di pa nakatugtog d’on,” Waiian said. They also had a limited guestlist, so he invited his best friends to be his backing choir. “Tropa kong 9-to-5er sa call center, nasa stage ng Wanderland, tinalo pa si Flow G.”

Waiian turns 28 this year; when he was 25, older rappers warned that his time was almost up. With “Backshots,” it seems his time is only beginning. I asked if he had any favorite memories from his storied rapper life so far. 

He remembered his birthday gig last year, where half the audience was his friends. “I felt very rich that day. Looking back at all the people I met, ‘pag namatay ako bukas, I’d be proud.”

Listen to Waiian’s latest album “Backshots” on all major music streaming platforms. Follow the rapper at @waiianworldwide. 

Story by Andrea Panaligan
Photos by Elleisha Angeles
Cover art by Alyza Laforteza
Special thanks to LIAB Studios