We recently connected with Waladi Ali and have shared our conversation below.

Waladi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

As a self-taught visual artist, art and learning have been a part of the very foundation of my life. So as a juxtaposition from my profession as an artist, I’d like to talk about my ventures into music for a change! Back in high school in 2017, a group of friends invited me to make music with them. We paid for studio times, licensed beats, the whole 9 yards. Though I even knew then similar to now, I needed to educate myself in order to take the craft seriously. My research stemmed from YouTube “rap tutorials”, trial and error, and the actual cheat code of my father being a professional musician. Even when I ventured into self-producing in the summer of 2020, I did a crash course on Music Theory beforehand in order to ensure that I’d be doing everything correctly. Thankfully I learned everything that I needed to learn when I needed to learn it, and the process never stops either. Referencing the music of artists that inspired me were essential and asking my friends and significant other at the for feedback helped quite a bit. Though I often held myself back. My lack of belief in myself, and treatment of music as a temporary hobby hurt me at times, but my motivation stemmed from support by friends and endless possibilities moved me forward indefinitely.

Waladi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a visual artist and musical artist from the greatest, absolutely most slept on city in the world, Denver Colorado! I was introduced to visual arts at the age of 3, and from then on, it’s been an amazing outlet for my creativity, emotions, and service to others. Similar to music, the first rap song I wrote had to be around my middle school career. Me and my friend performed a song we wrote at the talent show, and inevitably forgot the lyrics! Super embarrassing, but my father, who was in attendance, was very supportive afterwards giving positive feedback and criticism. The type of music that I create now delves into lots of introspection. Whether it comes to love, hate, complacency, or just being alive in general, my music helps me reflect in real time. Anything from my catalogue, besides the soundtracks, draws from the perspective of a flawed angel, like “I tried my best and here I am in the process”. And from great reviews and feedback, my listeners truly relate to that part of my music. That’s what sets me apart from others, I don’t have it all together, and the listener will be able to hear that candidly each song. I’m personally proud to exclaim, out of 30 songs that I have made and released, 26 were self-produced! If anyone needs to take anything from my musical ventures, is that you can do anything you set your mind to, even if you’re still taking baby steps.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The most nightmarish story was back in fall 2020 when my computer died. It was so awful because I was in the middle of making my third song in my career that I was so proud of. Not to mention, my profession as an artist was affected because all of a sudden, I couldn’t get my commissions done. The blue screen of death was a force to be reckoned with and when my taskbar wouldn’t respond anymore, I started to dip into my money to buy a new computer. Thankfully my wonderful mother was able to find someone to get it fixed for me, but beforehand I had bought numerous blank discs to transfer everything because we had to erase the hard drive on the computer and factory reset. Then I had to use my older computer to do art and couldn’t do music, I can testify I cried myself to sleep on several occasions. But in the end, everything worked out, despite the temporary hold on my entire life. I took that time of inaction to learn new things as well to bide time. Learning more about the music world and business, buying helpful books, and videos. A stressful yet productive time indeed. Also, the song was completed with wonderful support and reviews across the boards!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Competition has been such a big part of my life. As a recovering sore loser, I like to go hard on anything that I feel I can be the best at. Musical competition has been no different. Whether it be listener count, stream count, or how many people I can get during a live performance to chant the words to my song in order to dust the previous and proceeding performer. But within that is a healthy competitive spirit. I want to see all of my people who are in my circle or vicinity that are making music, achieve their own personal goals. My personal mission with music isn’t as particular as it is with art. I don’t really want to be a famous rapper, or revered musician. Though in my 2018 yearbook, I was voted most likely “to be found in the Spotify top 25 rappers” so that’s a thing I might do if I feel like it haha. All in all, as long as my music can be as soothing as possible to the listener, through calmness or anger, I can be content knowing I’m doing my job well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://waladiboss.wixsite.com/wbaart
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ida_law/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waladi-ali-15289419a
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ida_law2

Image Credits
Colin Donovan My friend Gabby