Waiian's 'Good Problems' talks about life as it is, and more
Amid the pandemic, artists in the local music industry have taken it upon themselves to do their best to be productive and stir up their creative juices at home. These artists would do this by crafting and releasing songs as a means to reach out to an audience who are enduring this new normal, just like them.
This perfectly resonates with 23-year-old Filipino rapper, Waiian, who just recently released his full-fledged solo album, Good Problems. The album contains a curated selection of 11 songs that delve into a variety of aspects in the rapper’s life: from his identity, being in the rap industry, and life as it is after two years of being in the game.
Photo by: Misha Salud (@mishalud)
Compared to the music style he does with Kartell’em of spitting hard-hitting bars containing the hip-hop collective’s thoughts on current issues on top of hip-hop beats and trap-infused tracks, Waiian takes a different route and comes to his own as a solo rapper. Similar to his first EP: Stranded in Hawaii, and recent single: Solo Mission, Good Problems features jazzy elements and chill lo-fi tracks produced by Lustbass, and O’nonymous, paired with raw emotions and even more stories in the bars he makes.
According to Waiian himself, the release of his selected collection of songs felt like a weight was taken off his chest by hoping he created an album that tells you what the numbers can’t (All I Know). From spitting bars dealing with his struggles in The Tea, to talking about the rap industry in Rap Shit, and desire for self-awareness in his first track, Grow, Waiian essentially showed how the same 24 hours everyone has was used wisely during this time in quarantine. That time provided him some headway to not only reflect on his surroundings but also reflect on himself and the thoughts that run through his head - from his demons and what if’s, to how to improve his craft and grind.
Photo by Episodes (@episodes.tv)
Though we get a glimpse of Waiian’s perspective of the world and his mindset through his process of reflection, this album is somehow reminiscent of the thoughts that either keeps us up late at night, or what we choose to vent out to the universe, yet the album also serves as Waiian’s platform to tell us that we’re not alone in all this. A bar that perfectly presents this idea would be from Waiian's 6th track in the album: Rap Shit! Goin’ different places, making different kinds of noise. Seen so many different faces, we don’t all rap but everybody got a voice. Everybody got a choice, all the boys and the girls. This bar serves as Waiian’s way of telling us, his listeners, that it’s definitely up to us how we speak our minds, use our voices, and live our lives, especially in crazy times like these.