We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pronto Valid a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Pronto Valid, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

My artistic path of development is an unusual path. I started off just writing lyrics to the beat of songs that I’d hear on cartoon network. I was already introduced to hip-hop early on (around 5 years old or so) when my parents would play “The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem on family trips. Something about the sound caught my ear and mesmerized me. I kept writing lyrics throughout 5th grade and then just gave up randomly. I started up again when prompted by some friends in 7th grade to join a rap group. The grpup didnt last very long, nor did we release any music, but it reinvigorated my love for writing lyrics. It took me about 2 years after that to record my first few songs. I would experiment with a rockband mic and some free DAWs until I eventually put together $200 and bought a presonus studio one starter kit. To this day i still use the same program (even to produce). My mixes were pretty bad until recently i’d say, and there’s always room for growth. But they were good enough for me to start releasing music around 2011 during my freshmen year of highschool. Once I heard my voice over an instrumental for the first time, it gave me the confidemce to keep pursuing it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a hip-hop artist from Chicago, as well as an Audio Engineer and Producer. I provide entertainment for audiences who enjoy live music and hip-hop. In addition, I provide engineering services for artists of all genres local to me and produce hip-hop beats for myself and others as well as (some) electronic music which is yet to be released. I’d say the biggest thing that sets me apart from others was my upbringing. I am a first generation Bosnian-American. My parents came to the U.S. in the 90’s after fleeing war and genocide in Bosnia. Being bosnian alone would have probably been enough to make me fairly different and quirky from my peers (being a white, european-american who is also Muslim), but the dark aspects of my family’s stories colored my perception of the world in a profound way. It’s always been hard for me to trust others, it’s always been difficult for me to want to put myself out there, and it’s always been difficult for me to relate to my American friends and peers whose families have been here for generations. Despite that, i’ve been able to look past those difficulties and anxiety i was imbued with during my upbringing to eventually make many friends in the music industry, as this is a social sport at the end of the day.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think there are alot of platforms where artists can upload music to and have their fans directly support them. (Think patreon, nina protocol and others). Platforms like these take the power away from tue streaming giants and give creators the ability to make a real living doing what they enjpy most. I think it’s going to take a while for something like that to catch on as it is a bit inconvenient for the people who want access to all music ubiquitously, but for those who truly believe in or enjoy one particular artist, I think it’s a game changer for both the fan and the artist in the semse that a fan can grow a deeper connection with that creative and the creative can in turn, fund their lifestyle.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

While I was going to school at Columbia College Chicago, I had the opportunity to perform at an unofficial SXSW showcase, but was removed from the lineup last-minute due to poor scheduling on the part of the event organizers. Although it really hurt at the time, it pushed me to keep looking for opportunities to perform and put myself out there. Over the past year alone, I have opened up for acts like Twista, Gorilla Zoe, and Afroman and will be opening up for Yung Bleu on the 19th of July in Chicago! I’m thankful to have been able to open up for such legendary acts and look forward to opening up for even more legends as I continue to establish myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.prontovalidofficial.xyz
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prontovalid?igsh=MTZ6bXVoOXo4N3lmbw==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1AueFmfVwY/
• Twitter: https://x.com/prontovalid?s=09
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@prontovalid?si=6aNyuyfAnHPWzMzW
• Other: My linktree: https://linktr.ee/ProntoValidMy newest song:
  https://open.spotify.com/album/3VNV3rFDTUlhGUXfmBUsKr?si=eJKRkRewQZiQbBc4V0elog

Image Credits

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