For Kimmortal, art offers a way to connect the layered parts of identity—and to turn a once-difficult relationship with speech into rhythm, performance and collective expression.
Kimmortal is a Vancouver-based rap-soul emcee, singer-songwriter and visual artist with roots in the Pacific Northwest. Their work brings together hip-hop, melody and instrumentation while exploring gender, Filipino diasporic identity and community. The music can be politically direct without losing its playfulness, warmth or sense of possibility.
This conversation centers on “Jungle,” a collaboration featuring Jillthy and Missy D., as well as the artist’s development, the role of creative communities and plans connected to the SHE Festival.
Discovering music through movement and writing
How did music become a way to communicate?
Kimmortal described living with anxiety and a stutter during the final years of high school. Leading a hip-hop dance team offered one form of expression through movement, but developing confidence in their speaking and singing voice remained deeply important.
Listening to Lauryn Hill’s MTV Unplugged helped reveal how an artist could address personal struggle with honesty and spiritual depth. Kimmortal then began playing guitar and adapting journal entries into lyrics. As the writing grew more rhythmic, rap became a natural part of the process, opening space for continued experimentation.
Filipinx identity, diaspora and belonging
How does Filipinx identity shape the work?
Kimmortal explained that family history appears throughout the work, sometimes consciously and sometimes through gesture, discipline and creative instinct. Their parents’ experiences as working-class immigrants informed how they understood ambition, belonging and the pressure to establish worth in predominantly white, middle-class environments.
A childhood visit to the Philippines also sharpened a sense of distance. Not speaking Tagalog fluently created feelings of disconnection, while life in Canada brought another set of expectations around race, gender and queerness. Participation in Filipino activist groups and queer communities of color later provided language for understanding how colonialism can shape diasporic alienation.
The resulting art is concerned with connection and wholeness. Rather than flattening identity into a single category, Kimmortal uses music and visual work to hold multiple histories and experiences together.
Building “Jungle” from found sound
What inspired the track and its video?
“Jungle” began as an experiment in beatmaking. Kimmortal worked with a sampled kulintang sound, reshaped percussion and recordings made on a phone to construct the track’s texture. Jillthy and Missy D. were invited to contribute verses focused on the energy and presence of women of color in hip-hop.
The accompanying video was filmed by Khingz in outdoor urban spaces, including parking areas, brick walls and concrete settings. Kimmortal subsequently edited the piece, continuing a hands-on approach that moves between music, visual art and production.
Influence and creative community
Where does inspiration come from?
At the time of the conversation, Kimmortal pointed to Princess Nokia’s ability to move between creative worlds while expressing pride, intelligence and complexity. Just as important were friends working as poets, activists, writers, dancers, musicians and emcees. That network encouraged deeper creative thinking and helped make art a shared practice rather than an isolated pursuit.
For more work on the relationship between art and identity, explore Wear Your Voice’s feature on queer artists in India.
Art as affirmation and community support
What can music give back?
Kimmortal hoped the work would affirm queer people of color, femmes, women of color, diasporic communities and others who are frequently made to feel outside dominant cultural spaces. Music, in this view, can offer recognition, emotional sustenance and a glimpse into a life that is too often simplified or left unseen.
The political dimension follows from that commitment. Kimmortal described art as a means of supporting communities under pressure and placing marginalized voices within public conversations. Their own music carries the influence of teachers, ancestors and peers, with the aim of extending that energy to listeners.
The SHE Festival and sharing skills
What was the vision for the festival?
Kimmortal wanted the SHE Festival to become more than a single-day event. The broader idea included free workshops for Black, Indigenous and other girls of color, creating opportunities to share practical skills and experience while encouraging sustained conversation among artists and community members.
The project reflects a consistent principle in Kimmortal’s work: visibility matters, but building structures where others can learn, create and be heard matters as well.
Choosing an artistic life
What came next?
Kimmortal hoped to release additional music and art, travel and connect with audiences in new places. What had begun as experimentation had become an intentional artistic path. Performing alongside admired musicians and appearing at community festivals demonstrated what could follow from committing fully to creative practice.
The arc of this profile is ultimately less about overcoming one isolated obstacle than about assembling a voice from many sources—movement, family, identity, collaboration and persistent making. Kimmortal’s work treats that voice as both personal expression and an invitation to community.
