Hi, my name is Pro Walezinto and I love to create sound. I was born and raised in two big families in Zola, Soweto
and I currently live and study in Pretoria.
My sound is very diverse and this is owed to my early exposure to different varieties of music - from the time when I was
just a small child to me leaving high school I had always heard different music played in my community by people of all diversities.
I love Hip Hop and RnB dearly and these make up most of the fabric of my music. I've noticed in recent years, especially during this one, that I
have a unique and distinctive appreciation for the blues, 60's/70's/80's American and South African music in particular, so that is a flavour
that is huge in the way I create melodies. It is with great feeling and the sincerest of expressions. I believe my voice is my music, that
it is my contribution to the world and what I ultimately represent and understand about it, so in playing it I am always careful of what I want to say with it.
I am the favoured and in-house producer at AVE Entertainment in my hometown of Zola, Soweto. AVE is a black-owned entertainment company behind the brand
Amalanga Awafani and AV Clothing. It is part-owned by a dear friend of mine and his one associate and they have a studio next door to my grandmother's home called GP Records -
where I prefer to spend most of my time when visiting home.
A lot of my work here in Pretoria is with Paradigm Records, an independent label based in Centurion.
Expect to hear my name a lot when going through most of their stuff, even though I don't think people understand just what it really is that I did there.
We have worked extensively on a number of projects that I only hope will make it to you one solid, intended piece.
My current project is with a very talented duo that I am pleased to have met this year. We are working on something I
consider a game changer for myself as a music producer and as a mix engineer. I have worked enough on vocals to understand
now what to do with just sound I create as a whole to make the experience resonate with audiences worldwide, and this next thing is a chance to do just that:
extend my reach out to the entire world.
I started making my own music in primary school, in grade 5 or 6.
That whole thing first started with me writing poems after I heard a particular ''Black Child It's Possible'' poem on Sbu's Breakfast show on YFM at the time. I had a few ideas then but started writing out full poems following that encounter. A few months later I heard a song by Keri Hilson and Lil Wayne on the radio in the bus to school, and that kick-started the entire story. I don't know what it was about that collab that glued everything together to me, but I remember that was the first lyrics I wrote that flowed like how I envisioned my swag would sound you know?
So, what I used to do then was write out the lyrics to my favourite songs word for word so I could master all these flows that moved me, so most of these were Lil Wayne and later Drake songs. I was on the quest to being like these men with the pen so my whole psychology was that I really needed to understand their minds.
I had a close friend who introduced me to YMCMB and we rode in the same school transport. We set out to be the illest MC's together in that time and he had a different process altogether - so he would play a record like 80 times over and over again until he remembered every last lyric and I found that to be a challenge. We competed a lot with our raps and he could freestyle better because of the way he hears the music in his head, while I depended on real thought to make any impact.
All of that was probably around 2006 to 08. In December 2008, my grandmother passed on and I remember from that stage I wrote each and every day of my life to escape my own head. In 2009 I had the opportunity to record my first song in life at Pulse Ink, a place owned by Speeka in Protea Glen I think... there's two so I'm not very sure right now. I had a very weird stage name before recording that and the homie that took me to Speeka to record, who was a schoolmate of my uncle's, gave me the name Proskillz. He said that I had a very dope flow and articulation for my age and from that he foresaw a whole Professor of Skills... a whole professor guys. Pause.
So we did the song around June in 09 I think and I remember only having 7 bars for my verse, but I didn't even know what number of bars I should even work with at the time. I didn't really understand how music was structured then so bars for me were just bars, without numbers! I remember Speeka had the last bar (7th) of my verse go twice to make an eight-bar verse. I slept on the taxi home and we were only 30 minutes away from home. I had a long day bro.
From all of that, rapping became harder and harder to do and live with because a homie simply wasn't getting beats. I wanted now to make beats and I knew some guys that sparked my initial interests and showed me a few things before I even had my own computer. I only started making beats in 2012, shortly before my dad got me my first laptop in August of that year. I was doing grade 8 and I went insane over that thing. I was also DJing at the time and that I was already good at so making beats took me some time to really get into. I think it took me about two years to even start understanding I was doing and how to do/not do it. The one thing that helped me improve a lot was staying focused on that - the pen sadly faded when I started making a beat everyday over writing like a verse everyday, which is what I used to do.
My music went from me wanting to make my own beats, to wanting to make beats that could please just about any rapper, to making music for my own pleasure, and now focusing on things that inspire artists of all skill sets and ball parks to be more. Now more than ever I realise why I have to be sincere in my approach to music and the stress and frivolousness all decrease eventually when intention considered thoroughly beforehand.
To get to where I am, I had to try a lot of things with the confidence in myself that I am just a mortal man trying to do something extraordinary and be enough with just that - even when the results came back shitty. I had also to grow a thick skin and understand the level of criticism creators live with and go through the alienation of being a different dreamer, a different motivator/motivation and going against the grain basically. But also, to get where I am I had to be honest with myself and acknowledge all the things I knew and didn't, decide on the the things I wanted/needed and decide what's important, remain a humble student of the game and never stop aiming higher than what my idols are doing.
In terms of performance performance... like on that real tip... nah.
I have graced a couple of stages working as a producer with the artists from like sessions in the hood to clubs here in PTA,
but never have I felt anything special about those appearances. I have yet to make these memories.
I have quite a lot of them hey.. I could go on for a minute. But just to be brief, I look up to producers like Alex Worldwide first and foremost. He's my brother and we grew up together and made music together. I look up to him because he has always inspired me to do and be more, like I always know there is room for growth when I'm around him because I see it in the way our processes are different, our motivations and also our intentions with it. That honestly gives me a window to view someone else's life in but also to view mine because we talk to each other too so he'll tell me ''This is what I like about this'' or ''Nah B that's whack ntwana.'' We are super comfortable with being honest and open with one another too so that is different to say a homie that's gassing you up only to get a beat someday... so they are nice and extra-cordial with you. That's cap sometimes because what I want and need have to different consequences on my outcome and I feel like we should be unapologetically attentive, conscious of surroundings and ourselves and honest with each other as artists artisting. Overall, I would say my influences are as broad as the oceans but specific to most of what happens in and around Hip Hop culture, which takes from Blues, Jazz, that funk disco music as well as Soul.
Drums and such kits:
TR808, 909, XLN Audio XO, Steven Slate Drums, TM88 DirectWave 808 machine
Keyboards:
Arturia Analog Lab, Korg Monopoly and MS-20, Roland Juno, JV, JX, JUPITER, PROMARS, SYSTEM 1, 8 and 100, SRX WORLD, SRX ORCHESTRA, D-50 and SH 101.
Minimogue and the original Moog One
Mixing and Mastering
Waves SSL Mixing Boards, Arturia Compressors, Soundtoys Analog Audio Processors
+ a whole lot more things I'm forgetting right now.
Follow my YouTube to see these things I'm forgetting now in action!! I'll be creating a whole ''IN THE MUSIC'' series soon so watch for that! Follow me on SoundCloud, Beatstars, Instagram, Facebook and stay up to date with my content.
I DO FREE GIVEAWAYS A LOT SO DON'T SNOOZE.
If you can send an email to me or get your email address to me I'll make sure FREE products land on your inbox everytime.
Beyond that, stay safe and dangerous,
stay humble in your greatness, and stay living your best life possible ,
and that's living through everyday! Shout out my mom wherever she is right now.
Shout out my followers and fans, ones I do and do not know yet - I love yall !
