Kublakai
Dec 2011
Who are you?
Ian “Kublakai” Waller. Artist. Film connoisseur. Rapper. Businessman. Inspirer.
Where do you live?
Seattle, Washington.
What do you do?
Part time bartender, full time hip-hop head/rapper.
When did you start?
Started rapping when I was 13. Did my first performance when I was 15. Made my first album when I was 18. Recorded my first studio album when I was 22. Planned my first tour when I was 26. To be continued…
How was your first show/performance?
My first performance was a spoken word piece. I literally blacked out and forgot all my words half way through. Awful feeling; but I recovered from it, slowly. First hip-hop performance was at a small VFW hall on Vashon Island, and it was very poorly attended, but I look back on it fondly.
What would you like to gain from your work?
I just want to connect with people. Good, hard working people that are about their art. Whatever that may be: b-boy, graffiti writer, rapper, painter, athlete, whatever. You can be a businessperson and be an artist at that. I just want to connect with inspired people so that they can inspire me, and I can hopefully inspire them. When you connect with people on an artistic level, you start to feel like everything else is secondary.
What would you like your audience to gain from your work?
To have fun. You only live once. But remember to think. Fun can be misleading without self-reflection and thought about what’s happening in your life. Enjoy the moment, be confident and do you, no matter what. Laugh at yourself, at life and the ridiculousness of it all.
Who or what are your biggest influences?
Muhammad Ali, Will Smith, Ice T and life (especially these days). The world is far too crazy now to not be influenced by it.
What keeps you up at night?
E-mails and movies. My girlfriend works mornings, so most of my fan mail, business e-mail and quality movie watching time happens from about 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. I like it that way, though. I’m a night person.
But if you’re asking what I fear, then I’d have to say the fear of a day job that entails a Kevin Spacey in Horrible Bosses type of boss. I couldn’t do it and, actually, I wont. I’ll panhandle before I’ll be a corporate fuck-stain. Small business is great, corporatism is evil, and that shit definitely keeps me up at night.
What’s next?
I just did my five year business plan with my business partner and there’s a lot that’ll be happening for me, but next up is the Break the Leg Tour with JFK (Grayskul) and Symmetry (Symmetry & Ryan Lewis). I can’t wait to do this tour. Even if only a single person shows up, I get to tour with—in my opinion—two of the dopest to ever pick up a mic. I’m fucking excited.
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