Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

Filipino-American rap artist Ruby Ibarra uses words as her weapon and wields it with grace and truth in representing the infrequently told Filipino experiences in America.

“Just the fact that I look different from the average rapper that you normally see in mainstream media, I think it's important to have more diversity, have different faces, being able to be present. It's important to have everybody's voices heard,” she said.

Ibarra raps in Tagalog and English with equal power. When she’s writing in Tagalog, her mother is her proofreader.

“A woman’s voice is just as important to tell, as ever. The artists that inspired me are Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliott, to name a few,” she said.

She added that the late Pinoy rapper Francis Magalona also inspired her.

“He’s actually the very, very first hip-hop artist that I ever heard. I think I was 5 years old, I heard his song ‘Mga kababayan ko’, and that inspired me to love hip-hop and he was my first introduction to this genre,” Ibarra said.

Last year, she was one of the artists who participated in “Act to Change”, an album against bullying undertaken under former President Barack Obama’s White House initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).

Under the current administration, the initiative has lost 16 members who resigned in protest against attacks on immigrants affecting the AAPI community.

Ibarra said the current political situation inspired her to speak out through her new album “Circa 91”.

"Immigration is a very hot topic right now in the country and I really wanted to put my story out there, being a first generation Filipino-American and my experiences and my country’s experiences immigrating from the Philippines to the US,” she said.

Ibarra’s “Circa 91” is available for download through iTunes, Amazon, and on her www.rubyibarra.com.

Read more on Balitang America: