Just once Wow sat down for our interview in the corner of the studio, we had invented a basic, but perhaps annoying question to answer too early: How did your interest in rap, and music in general, begin?
For many designers who have been working on their craft for years like Waiian, it’s natural for them to struggle to pinpoint when it all started. Their early memories of creating so much art may have started to fade away all together. But like clockwork, he remembered the moment his high school film production major broke down the lines to Lupe Fiasco’s “Lamborghini Angels” in class — realizing immediately that, hey, writing poetry is cool.
“I thought, ‘That’s it (I thought to myself, ‘Oh, that’s it), poems are deeper than them shovel. I thought it was about shaking ass and blah, blah, blah,’” Spotify artist RADAR 2026 joked.
About a year later, Waiian tested his skills for the first time – and did so successfully – his crush’s tears as hard evidence.
“I wrote a love song for my boyfriend, and then I played it for him on Valentine’s Day 2017, and he cried. And I said, ‘Oh, I have superpowers. I have this ability to write music that people can feel.’
Pablo Waiian Santos – or just Waiian – hasn’t seen music any other way since then. With that great power, Waiian entered the local music scene, and he plans to enjoy it for the rest of his life. land.
A unique mission
Waiian was already familiar to long-time fans of Filipino rap as a member of the group Kartell’emfounded on graffiti, skateboarding, and of course, hip-hop. They moved in tandem with each other, and the atmosphere was a good kind of competition – the boys were always competing to come up with the next best line.
Within the team, Waiian was a team player who was always thinking about what he could bring to the table.
But in the name of keeping it real, she admitted that she felt small when it came to working with the hive all the time. The 28-year-old rapper has always been the kind of guy to wear his heart on his sleeve. He firmly believes that his music doesn’t sound right when he doesn’t tell it like it is. He needed a way to express his weakness, and he would only find it if he started working alone.
“I love my friends. I won’t get anything with Kartell’em. But there are some things I only do with them, and there are things I can only do with myself. For example, any group of men makes a difference when they have their houses. At the end of the day, when they go home and lie in bed and think about their lives, maybe that’s where I’m headed Waiian (that’s where I become Waiian),” he shared. “In cypher, usually, it’s just a joke, how cruel we are as a group. But in Waiian, that’s where I become human.”
(In cypher, usually, it’s all about being brave and how cool we are as a group. But when I’m Waiian, that’s when I’m human.)
Pouring all of his personality into every bar he creates has been a hallmark of his artistry, and his solo birth sees him playing that even more. It’s a quality that isn’t unique to him, but in the Philippine hip-hop scene, Waiian’s originality definitely puts him in a minority.
“In the situation I’m in right now, it’s not normal for people to express their feelings in a very weak way, the way I do. So (I’ll be) the person to do it so that other people see that, you don’t have to rap about greens, money, and guns that we don’t have. Why don’t you rap and write songs that are real to you? He said in a mix of English and Filipino.
But when you are not in line with the man you see in the mirror (or “EVIL,” instead), is always easier said than done. That’s why it took Waiian two whole years to complete his work. CAN’T YOU? album, which he finally released in 2023.
“CAN’T YOU? it took a long time because I was sad, and I was also fighting with my friends in Kartell’em and going through a lot of internal things with myself. I tried to finish CAN’T YOU? album to make it happen… it didn’t come out the way it should have,” he explained.
Waiian saw the album as a negative result of not matching himself – it was the product of an unfortunate separation of who he is as a human being from who he is as an artist.
“Waiian time CAN’T YOU? He was probably lost and I didn’t know what to do yet with the music. He just knows that he is known, that people will listen to him. But he didn’t know what to say at that time, so he just said that he didn’t know who he was.”
To reach his time BACK BLOWS The album came out of the vault in 2025, it was a completely different Waiian that came to the fore. He was more focused than ever, so much so that he was able to set the entire record in just three months.
Take a step back
BACK BLOWS is by far one of Waiian’s most successful drops. He had sung a few songs off the album in his time Mountain climbing country 2025 set, and as soon as his friends got behind the microphone and sang the opening songs of “MALAKING BIRD” in the chorus, the eager audience scattered around the concert hall rushed to his side of the stage to see what was going on.
With a sharp focus, restored confidence, and a sense of humor that everyone came to love, Waiian appeared on stage and kept the crowd on their toes for his entire performance. But did all this new realization come as a surprise to him?
“Maybe yes and no,” he said after a short pause. “Because I always knew that I had something in me which we cannot see in other people (which we cannot see in others). It took a lot of personal work to get the job. I appreciate all the blessings I get, all the recognition I get and receive, but I know that work must always come first. I’m happy about that.”
Even with his newly improved self-esteem, Waiian wasn’t done making things better. A year later BACK BLOWS, he spends a lot of time exploring his surroundings and figuring out what exactly he wants to say in his music.
“It’s easy to write songs because it’s like I’m just talking. Before I know what to say, I need to step back and listen and shut up. I am a very talkative person, and now I go back and listen to people, their stories and find myself following,” he said.
That’s where his roots in the urban jungle of Makati come in handy – where, in the absence of nature, he learns to turn to human nature.
“All kinds of people, I meet them: people designers, those hard working 9-to-5-ers, those regular taxi drivers, tricycle drivers. I’ve never skipped a conversation if I had the chance to talk to a human being, so that probably helped me become who I am because I’ve always been curious.”
(I get to hang out with all kinds of people: creatives, hardworking 9-to-5ers, regular taxi drivers, tricycle drivers. I’ve never skipped a conversation if I had the chance to talk to a human being, so that probably helped me be who I am because I’ve always been curious.)
But more than making a soft spot in the country’s hip-hop scene, Waiian is on a mission to change people’s minds about Philippine rap in his own “weird and honest, but light-hearted and critical” way by making his music reach more listeners.
“There are a lot of Filipinos who don’t like local rap music, I’m one of those people, and then I found English-speaking rappers. because that’s what I know music. Because of that, because I became a local rapper, I became more involved with local music. So if they need a bridge from just listening to internationals, maybe I can be in the middle of the bridge.”
(Then I got English-speaking rappers because that’s the only music I knew. Because of that, and because I’ve been a local rapper, I got into local music. If they need a bridge from just listening to international, maybe I can be in the middle of the bridge.)
Just come and let Waiian’s verses do the talking. – Rappler.com
Listen to the Spotify RADAR Philippines playlist here.
