Ruby Ibarra uses rap music and spoken word to singularly embody the fact that Filipino artists are not a monolith — just like the Philippines itself, which has many islands and languages.
That’s not an easy mission, especially when you’re from the San Francisco Bay Area, home of world champion Filipino hip-hop DJs. But Ibarra has effortlessly carved her own space in the culture, and is happy to share her knowledge with other artists via her music and label, Bolo Music Group.
Read more: 14 Pinoy Pop Acts You Should Know: G22, Maki, KAIA, ALAMAT, & More
Ibarra’s debut album, 2017’s Circa91, explores what it meant to grow up as an immigrant from Tacloban in the Philippines in the East Bay in the '90s. Her music and spoken word performances stand out in their originality since she utilizes three languages (English and the Filipino-spoken Tagalog and Waray).
Her latest single, "Bakunawa," signals her willingness to weld different styles together to explore new ground and rooted in mythology about a dragon who swallows the moon. The song beat out nearly 7,500 submissions to NPR’s 2025 "Tiny Desk" contest; Ibrarra captivated judges for her "striking originality, lyrical depth and commanding presence."
The song precedes a long-awaited sophomore album, which Ibarra has been working on for some years and does not yet have a release date. There’s a good reason for that: Ibarra recently had her first child and is adjusting to new motherhood. "Motherhood will definitely steer and drive the direction of how I approach music making but also, what I think I talk about," Ibarra tells GRAMMY.com. "I’m finding myself now, as in continuing to write lyrics, I’m also asking myself, are these songs I would want to show my own daughter?"
As Ibarra plots that path, she'll continue to help nurture and release music from artists signed to Bolo Music Group. As she tells GRAMMY.com below, there’s a science to it all.
Can you talk about "Bakunawa" and the music video that you made for it?
I released the song a few months ago. It features these amazing, incredible artists who are all Filipinos as well. Han Han, who’s a singer and an MC, Ouida from San Francisco, who is this amazing vocalist, and last but, of course, not least June Millington, who’s just a badass rock guitarist and singer. She was part of this incredible band from the 1970s called Fanny, an all-female band. To have done a collaboration with such a powerhouse of a lineup was just a dream come true. The music video and the live performance video… was just the icing on the cake for me to be able to come together in person.
As you might have heard with ["Bakunawa"], it’s definitely very unique. There’s a lot of driving elements within the music and we also fused different genres together, from indie to elements of folk and rock, and of course hip-hop being the main foundation of the track. This was really a collaborative effort and I’m so happy that we were able to not only come together, but also to create a song that speaks and references Philippine mythology.
The music video was of course also a pregnancy announcement for me. I had my baby girl shortly after the music video was released and it was just a culmination and a celebration of so many beautiful things.
Learn more: From Fanny To Madam Wong's & The GRAMMYs: How The Asian Community Has Impacted Rock
Is the song part of a story arc that the next album may have?
At the moment it’s not a specific arc in the storytelling of the album, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up incorporating other Philippine mythological stories or elements in other songs. Since I had so much fun doing the research and diving into it and also creating the visuals with "Bakunawa," I’d love to be able to do that again with another song and another story.
I think right now the approach is to continue exploring, fusing and molding different genres together.
Do you know when the album will be released?
I initially had put myself on a timeline, that’s why I felt compelled to release "Bakunawa" when I did. I was thinking to myself, this is the first single and this will help open up the rest of the rollout of the sophomore album.
But I will say that having a child for the first time kind of threw all those plans out the window, and I’ve had to kind of readjust my capacity and my availability and how to balance my personal life with my artistry. That’s not to say that I’ve completely stopped and haunted progress on the album. I will say that I am still aiming for it to release within the next year.
Do you think being a new mom will be reflected a lot in your new music?
Absolutely! I don’t think I publicly shared this enough when I released "Bakunawa," but during the outro section of that record, my producer and I actually used the sample from one of my ultrasound sessions from one of my doctors appointments. So my daughter’s heartbeat is actually playing throughout the spoken word underneath my poem at the very end of that song.
Motherhood will definitely steer and drive the direction of how I approach music making but also, what I think I talk about. I’m finding myself now, as in continuing to write lyrics, I’m also asking myself, are these songs I would want to show my own daughter? Are these songs sharing messages and talking about themes that I hope to one day put into conversations with my daughter? So the answers to all those questions, I think, will drive the direction of the rest of the album.
Aren’t you a scientist, too?
I’m actually not working full-time anymore as a scientist; I became a full-time artist two to three years ago. But that was and still is a large part of who I am and part of how the technical part of my brain is wired. At the end of the day, we all wear multiple hats and balance different things in our plate to get through our day to day and again, I think that will be reflected in the kind of topics that I’ll be talking about in my newer music.
I went to school at UC Davis and majored in biochemistry and molecular biology. Back then, I thought I was going to become a med student and pursue med school. But music was always pulling me and I felt like it’s really music and artistry that help ground me and what I truly want to focus on. So for the last several years…I was working full-time as a scientist at a biotech company and I worked within quality control. I worked with a lot of DNA samples and running PCR. Of course, as we got into the pandemic, my company also did a lot of research on the vaccine.
So you are responsible for saving lives!
I don’t know if I’d give myself that much credit! But I would say my company as well as my coworkers and everybody within science and the medical field played such a pivotal role in that.
You started a record label in 2023; what’s your mission with that?
In 2023, I co-founded an independent record label here in the Bay Area called Bolo Music Group. I co-founded it with my longtime producer/collaborator LASI. It's actually kind of a passion project that we have been working on in the background for at least five years now. And to have it come into fruition the last couple years was another dream come true.
One of the things that I’ve learned as an artist is that there is this amazing work and community and sense of collaboration...that always has left me in awe, but also inspired. I think I wanted to capture that feeling and multiply it for other people to also create inspiration for other artists. I think I also recognized that there aren’t enough resources.
It’s really difficult with social media also being an added factor now to how one grows one’s music career. There’s just so many things that as an independent artist you’re constantly having to be in charge of, to take leadership of, to steer, and you find yourself oftentimes being a songwriter, a performer, an engineer, the marketing agent — like, you’re doing the entire process all by yourself. And I think if artists are having to take on all those responsibilities, it just really takes out the creativity from us. Also I think it deters us from being able to open doors and get onto the next level much more efficiently and much faster.
With Bolo Music, what we are really doing is creating a community of artists and creatives and helping create a foundation for these independent artists so it’s easier for the next one to release… it’s building a collective and showing people that there is a community of Filipino American artists here that deserve a chance to be heard.
Our door has always been open since the start, and we’re always actively looking to see who are the next creatives and movers and shakers in the community.