Q&A with water: "I need to get stuff off my chest because if not I’ll go crazy"
If the literary theory of “death of the author” can extend to an artist’s chosen moniker, then one could argue for a new spin on what water’s name means.
A fairly new face in the Puerto Rican indie rap scene, water (stylized in all-lowercase) has been making a name for himself over the last year. His style of music falls squarely into the love-it or hate-it camps, a fact that he not only acknowledges but embraces with open arms.
His song's lo-fi production is littered with hisses and crackles, imbuing them with a bedroom garage/grunge aura that only heightens the rebel vibe of his lyrics. Listeners might find themselves taken aback by his words, but he doesn’t traffic in shock for the sake of controversy or seeking attention. While mainstream American hip-hop had its moment in the 1990s with rappers like Geto Boys and Prince Paul, whose provocative lyrics left many listeners fuming or clutching their pearls, the local scene in Puerto Rico hasn’t seen an artist quite like water break out in a long time (if ever.)
His music is inelegant and disarming, touching at times on everything from gender identity to politics, but there is order in the chaos of his words. Moreover, there’s actually a call to order that some might miss at first listen. Matan mensajeros, pero no el mensaje / el cáncer sigue vivo he raps in “poeta de muertos.” Any outrage is reciprocal, and it’d be smart to wonder why he’s so angry too.
So then, does “water” stand for “waterboy” like he says? Of course it does. But for a moment we can also believe that it stands for a cold splash on our faces that exposes us to new iconoclastic ideas, new subversive thoughts, and new puerile insights that might surprise us in their relevancy — not just to society, but also ourselves. Look into this water, and you might see your reflection looking back.
Trigger warning: this interview contains references to drug abuse, rape, and suicide that some readers may find distressing.
(The following quotes have been translated, edited, and condensed for clarity.)
What’s your name, and where are you from?
I’ve gone by a lot of names. Right now I like “Chris,” so my name is Chris. I’m from Puerto Rico, born in Arecibo but currently I live in San Juan.
What's the story behind your artist name?
It’s very stupid. It used to be “waterboy” because of the Adam Sandler movie, and the excuse was that I was the waterboy because I was, like, the underdog. But it sounded like shit, so I changed it to “water” because in my songs I’d always ad lib “Water!” instead of “Waterboy!” and people started fuckin’ with it.
Could you describe your recording process? Where do you record yourself, what do you use, what habits do you have, etc.?
My process has changed a lot. Right now, the first thing I do is look for a sample. After I look for a sample I figure out what type of drums I want. And after that, I sometimes just let it sit for a while and then when I have something to say I go back to it. Or if I have something to say already, I’ll do the same process I just said and say what I have to say. And then I record on my computer at my house, or wherever I am to be honest. If I can afford to rap out loud, that’s where I record.
But my process depends entirely on how I’m feeling at the moment, and if I have something to say. The most important thing to me is having something to say. If I don't, it's not worth recording.
What were your beginnings? When and where did you start recording?
I had a few starts, because I wouldn’t say my “start” is when I made my first song. I’d say my whole life of writing stories and books and making drawings and posters and characters — that’s the beginning. But of “water” per se, it was in 8th grade when I made a video of [myself] freestyling. It was ass, so everybody made fun of me, [but] instead of stopping I was very inspired to keep rapping. Because the way that I look at it, it’s like... they think I suck, okay, but I know I don’t suck so I’m gonna keep doing it.
And I’ve always been a really hateful person, in some way. I hated everybody at that school I was attending — it was like a rich kid’s school — so I just wanted to prove everybody wrong. I wanted to be the best, and that evolved into me getting into a lot of diss tracks with kids from other rich kid’s schools and getting into a lot of trouble. And that was very fun to me, because I like saying “fuck you” to the world.
So, it was a lot of [that] and making shit I had fun with; my early music had a lot of hooks, a lot of catchy themes, a lot of YouTube beats because I couldn’t make beats. Those were basically my beginnings.
What is a song that perhaps made you see the therapeutic value of music for the first time? Is there a track or album that touched you and motivated you to follow its example?
There wasn’t really a specific song that made me feel that because I always saw [the value.] To me, music is art and I know that’s kind of an obvious statement, but I [also] know that a lot of people in Puerto Rico don’t see it like that.
Music is art, and art is life. The only thing that made me feel the most is art. The only thing that made me comfortable is art. The only thing that moved me, the only thing that touched me, that inspired me, was art. My whole life. And the only thing I looked forward to was art. To make art, to make movies — I wanted to make movies. I wanted to be a director, I wanted to tell stories, I wanted to write books, I wanted to make this and that. And I did too; I made my own movies, I made my little comic books, I did all of it, so to me music was just secondhand.
The idea of rapping, for example, I always looked up to rappers. I thought they were cool, I thought they said so much. I thought they were so cool because they were the type of antihero you see in anime where they’re "too cool for school". And I always saw the value in that. I never thought it was lesser art. I just knew that it was valuable and it meant something.
A song that really changed me was “Discúlpanos” by Ciencia Fixión. That whole album, called O.D.I.O. (Oportunidad de Introducir Opción) by a Puerto Rican hip-hop group, changed... you know what, maybe something did change the way I view music! Maybe that whole first answer was bullshit.
You often use samples in your music, to great effect. Is there a particular genre that fits your style better? Rock, jazz, funk, or any other? And why?
At the beginning when I started making beats it was just jazz [samples] because I like the saxophone sound, but right now I wanna stop using jazz because it started to get repetitive and I noticed it very quickly. For the album I’m making right now that hasn't released yet, water forever, I didn’t search for any specific genre. I just looked up random shit, and a lot of it was just stuff I listen to. Like three or four of the [samples] are just music I listen to.
I really, really wanna mesh genres as much as I can because I want to sound as new and different as possible. I never wanna be [another] hip-hop artist, I never wanna be [another] trap artist, or reggaetón artist, I wanna be something that stands out. Whether because of drum patterns or samples, in respect to the sound, whatever it is I want it to be everything and nothing at once.
What did you want to do with this new album to make it different from your previous EPs and mixtapes?
For this new project I wanted to push myself, that’s the short answer.
For everything I made in 2023? No effort at all. And I know that’s kinda cliché to say, because I know a lot of artists say shit like that, but it’s genuine. All the music I released in 2023 was very much half-assed and made because I knew it would work. And because it was fun! It’s not that I didn’t have fun or that I was uninspired, I was very much inspired. But I didn’t care for it. So, for this album, I’m just caring and making it as I should. It hasn’t been released yet because I produced it myself, and I’m recording it with a producer. And we’re mixing and adding instruments and shits so it sounds beautiful and different and all of that. That’s basically what I’m doing differently. Just actually working on it and putting in some effort.
How do you choose which artists to collaborate with? What can you tell us about the ones who are on your new album?
At first the artists I collaborated with were just anybody who wanted to. No one ever was really interested until now, because now I’m doing numbers, quote-unquote. Then for a time I started thinking “Who would be most convenient?” as in “Who would make me money?” but I wasn’t at that point yet where I had the [influence] to get whoever I wanted on my song. Obviously I’m not talking about fuckin’ Bad Bunny; I mean people in the underground scene as well.
Right now I kinda do [have influence,] but to be honest the way I most choose who I want on my songs is just people I love and people I admire, not just on the musical level but on the personal one too. On this new album there’s no one from the underground scene, for now at least. The people featured are just my friends. People that inspire me, people that I love: my friend Edanice, my freakin’ collaborator Sade who’s also my partner. And Cayetano, whom I’ve known since I was in fuckin’ 8th grade because I was on a diss track [against] one of his classmates. He told me some information so I could diss him better, and then we just stayed friends.
The main reason I keep collaborating with Cayetano is because he’s so amazing. He’s the only person I truly believe that can compete with me. There’s nobody else but him. He’s the best rapper. Besides me, because I do think I’m the best.
[Editor’s note: water wanted it to be known that at this point of the interview his power went out, “Because that’s Puerto Rico.”]
You're an artist who's very fearless and frank about lots of different topics you sing about, and with a brutal honesty that many don't seem to have the courage to express themselves. Where does that come from? What is your philosophy, so to say, when you're going to write and are thinking of what to say and how you're going to say it?
Music to me is like a diary, and everything I write down is because that’s how I get it out of my mind. And I do need to get it out of my mind because my mind is insane, and I need to get stuff off my chest because if not I’ll go crazy. That’s kinda where it comes from. And I like to put it out to the world because I know the world will fuck with it.
I do think about all these things. I do think about gay rights and sexism and Palestine and all this shit, and I think about it daily. That’s why I mention it in my music and I’m so honest about it. And I talk shit about gringos, and politicians, and all these people, because that’s what I think about.
My philosophy when it comes to this in particular, it kinda just boils down to all of these rules and all of this society shit is not real. So, I will say anything, because it’s all bullshit. For me at least, and I don’t expect everybody to agree with it. But for me, it’s just such bullshit to be thinking “What can I say? What can’t I say?” Because if I go to another country it’s different. If I go to another town it’s different. It totally depends on where you’re standing, and I’m not gonna fuckin’ base my opinion or my morals on what the internet thinks.
For however shocking your lyrics are sometimes, they're also refreshing because of how rare it is for an artist to be as sincere as you are. What has been listener's reaction to that?
The reaction varies. For my upcoming single, “matando gringos,” it’s been very much a mixed bag. And I really love that, that it’s gonna get a reaction. Because it hasn’t come out yet and it’s already getting a reaction. People are saying “Isn’t that racist? That’s kinda fucked up.” Or people are telling me “That’s amazing. That’s good, that’s wonderful.”
With these new songs that are coming out that are a lot more explicit and harsh — and even with the old ones that are very explicit sexually, and kind of violent at times — people react very differently. I genuinely haven’t gotten much negative feedback. I dunno if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I’m not very worried about it. But most of the time if they don’t fuck with it they don’t tell me anything. They used to comment a lot on TikTok but I don’t have it anymore so I don’t hear about it.
Not a lot of people talk about my lyrics. A lot of people talk about what I feel, and what I transmit with my sentiment. Which is, of course, through the lyrics, but the people who react positively just connect to it on every fucking level. On a spiritual level, on an emotional level, maybe even on a religious level, on a sexual level, on a social level. They just understand me and what I’ve created with the character of “water.” He’s an extension of me and they understand him completely.
The reactions have been between “Fuck you, you’re kind of ass” to “I don’t agree with you but it’s good” to “He’s talented but it’s not my shit,” and the most prominent is “You’re dope.”
Where does your inspiration come from? Is it from anxieties you have in your personal life, or about society, or some combination of both?
Inspiration comes from everything, because I overthink a lot. And when I say this shit I don’t mean it in a quirky way. I’ve been to the mental hospital six times, I’ve tried to kill myself two times that I remember but I know there’s been more. I’ve had several drug overdoses. I take antipsychotic medication daily. I’m diagnosed with major severe depression with psychosis… Like, I’ve been insane. So when I say I overthink I mean in the most literal sense.
So, one of the things [my inspiration] comes from is all of that. All that trauma from being in the mental hospital and shit, being abused, being raped, being sexually assaulted. [Also] my childhood, the movies I watched, the books I read — “matando gringos” is literally just a book I read. The whole album of me voy, salvame is from one night that I hung out ‘cuz it was a crazy night so I made a whole album about it.
[Inspiration] comes from anxiety, from my personal life, from society and my distaste for it. Not to be edgy or anything. I’m a positive person, but I do very much hate everything. But that’s because of me, not because of anything, y’know? It’s not their fault that I hate them. It’s me, because I’m a prick.
For those who like your music, which artists would you recommend, from both Puerto Rico and outside?
I’m gonna say [them] all at once. Here it goes: Radiohead, Jazz Bandana, Reyes†††, ATT. LOS NENES, Yung Lean, Dean Blunt, Arca, Björk, Aphex Twin, Kanye West, The Smiths, Gustavo Cerati, Soda Stereo, Charly García, Yung Bruh, Xavier Wulf, Sesame Street, Pink Floyd, Villano Antillano, Dávila 666, Füete Billëte, Ciencia Fixión, Portishead, Danny Brown, JPEGMAFIA, Nelly Furtado… those are the ones I can think off the top of my head. So, that would be it.