Today we’d like to introduce you to Ricardo Pruneda.
Hi Ricardo, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My name is Ricardo Pruneda, and I’m an artist/entertainer/photographer… My stage name is Dirty White.. I’ve had several original music projects over the year and worked in various bars and what not as DJ Dirty White. I made a career as a DJ, and for about 11 years I put original music on the back burner… A lot of things in my life took a turn south back in 2018, and then in 2020 just before the pandemic, I lost my big sister to alcoholism. After that, I lost my entire career because the entertainment industry in Michigan was never the same after that, and I could no longer make a living. During those first couple years, I had gone through most of my savings. I was also able to find sobriety in the loss of my sister, I quit drinking on the day that she died… And I’ve now been sober for six years and almost 4 months… I lost my ability to write music, or find a joy in anything for quite a while. Until I wrote a song called something wonderful that changed everything. I realized that I was going to start making music heavy again, but only as a hobby and for myself, because I didn’t think there was a market for alternative hip-hop, music about sobriety, mental health, and dealing with real life things… But, I was wrong. While creating new music, I found a love for photography, and after a couple years was able to start my own business, visual noise photography… And I did pretty well, and I still work semi-regularly shooting photos… But, in a weird twist of events… The music took off. Not only that, but it started helping people. And that was helping me. Within no time at all, I was warming up the stage for childhood legends like slick Rick, The Sugarhill Gang, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony… I was collaborating on songs with legends like DMC from RUN DMC, and performing on large stages anywhere from the Motor City casino soundboard. Festivals like arts beats and eats… After what seems like a lifetime of making music and hitting dead ends, my music was finally resonating, and it was spreading… The kind of spreading that you can’t do with algorithms. Most recently in September 2025 I lost my mom, who is my best friend and my biggest inspiration. And somehow I’m out here doing it again… Releasing more music, turning all of my pain into progress through music. I’ve told the story of all of my experiences, and people are connecting whether it’s on the Internet, or at shows… And I know that I’m rambling, but it still just blows my mind. I’m 52 years old, and I started writing music in the early 90s, released my first recorded music in 1998… Over 30 years later, here I am living out all of my dreams to the fullest… And when I thought that it couldn’t get better, my DJ Career received a lifeline. The same festival is that we’re calling us to perform as a Band, are now calling me to entertain as a DJ. I went from having to DJ for five hours to barely break bread, to performing for less than two hours and making enough money to make ends meet. I still struggle, and I’m in therapy… But the music gets me through everything, and I know that I personally have 11 people sober on my watch… There are many more that I don’t know personally, because I just performed for my fourth year in Lansing Michigan on the steps of the capital at the U fam recovery rally. On top of all that, during the worst year of my life in 2020, somehow I met the love of my life and we are getting married this Halloween, October 31. So I lost literally everything in 2020… And over the past six years I have gained a music career that’s larger than my biggest dream. I’m able to tell these bars that I can’t do it as a DJ anymore, because I’m finally being respected as an entertainer and not just a glorified jukebox… I’m a damn good Photographer, that makes money every time set up and I sell prints. I own three LLCs between photography and music, I grew up in a trailer park, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all because that’s where I learned the sense of community… But we didn’t have much, and I used to deliver pizzas to the neighborhood that I currently live in. And back then I wished that I owned a house somewhere like this, and now I do. I don’t have to answer to disrespectful clients anymore, and I make my own hours. I’m performing on the main stage at a festival this upcoming Saturday with my Band, and a month later I’ll be back up on one of the bigger stages at another festival as a DJ. I get to make art for a living. And now I actually get paid to do it. And people actually support the whole lot of us… All over the globe because we get numbers everywhere from the Ukraine to Ireland, Australia, Japan, German Germany. And it all comes back to that song that I wrote after Covid, called something wonderful… Which there is a video for right now on YouTube, and my Band’s name is Dirty White and the high life social club. I know that I rambled on, I don’t know if there was anything else I needed to include here, just let me know.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think I answered a lot about the last six years on the last question lol so this time around, I will talk about my career before Covid. Yes, tons of obstacles… I was working in bars every night, so I drank a lot, and that takes a toll on your mental health… Up until 2020 though, I did very well as a DJ when it came to work… The biggest obstacles were loyalty and consistency… Either bars and clubs were changing gimmick, closing down or just deciding to get new entertainment altogether halfway through your shift in the middle of the night lol but as a musician/artist… Oh yeah, too many obstacles to bore you to death with.. record labels slammed doors in my faces because I didn’t fit the image, the only way people came to show us back, then was if you gave away tickets… So, even though I was putting over 1000 people into venues in my area, I was walking away with enough money for gas and some McDonald’s… I was still living in that same trailer park that I grew up in.. signed a failed production deal, where they promised me the world and just lied through their teeth, and then ended up signing with the financial backer… Without going into details, that went south, and he left us in crippling debt. I was headlining the Royal Oak music theater, very large venue and a very big deal… And backstage, that night I learned that our entire music career that we worked so hard for was over… Right before I walked on stage I found out that I was going to have to try to cover over $10,000 in debt from CD manufacturing, advertising, merchandise, etc. so that night I also signed away that album that we were celebrating, and I still don’t own it to this day. It’s still available, and if you find it online, go ahead and grab it… 11 years ago I decided to start making music again, and after a couple failed early projects I decided to do my own thing with a crew of very talented artists and musicians… Prior to 2020 I had only ever released two albums, one of them I didn’t even know the rights for, the other… I’m just not a fan of it. But since 2020 now, I have released four full length albums, two EP’s, one professionally recorded and mixed live album, and several music videos. And the music has spread all over the world, without me having to pay for views and followers. If you look at any of my Facebook or Instagram pages, there aren’t even a lot of people. But when you look at the streaming, it’s insane. Our music is spreading organically. It’s being broken on Podcasts in countries that we don’t even currently have access to. And when I’m not doing shows are working on music, I’m finding the most beautiful things in life through the lens of my camera.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve said a lot about this already in the previous questions, but I am, in this order… An artist/musician, a photographer and a DJ. As a DJ, right now I specialize in mixing and scratching old-school hip-hop and R&B Block party style sets… As a DJ, right now I’m most proud of the fact that I’m not only back doing it again, I’m doing it on large stages in front of large crowds… as a photographer? I’m proud of the fact that I’m able to find the beauty in life, and that people love the photos… I’m most proud of the moment that I was performing with my band and I had my photos set up next to my merchandise booth, and a fellow photographer wanted me to autograph one of my photo prints… Not a picture of me, one of the photos that I took as a Photographer, and he wanted me to sign it as the artist that he just watched perform on stage. That was amazing. As an artist/MC.. we specialize in hip-hop, but it’s old-school style and we blend rock, blues, soul, reggae, and more… I work with several very talented musicians and DJs. There are a couple things that I’m the most proud of, performing and recording with the legendary Darryl McDaniels from RUN DMC is right at the top of the list. But also performing with the legendary Melvin Davis, The Detroit Soul ambassador.. I’m proud that I’m able to stand on stage in front of hundreds of strangers and tell them my story, and that it helps them get through their hard times. Maybe I should say that at the top of my list. Another one of my most proud moments was this last year when I came back for that recovery rally, about 10% of the crowd had returned with my Dirty White, sobriety T-shirts on.. and one of them told me they stayed sober for another year just so they could come back and see us play.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Being honest, being kind, and being yourself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/dirtywhitehlsc
- Instagram: @dirtywhitehq @visualnoisephotog @gratiotaftermidnight313
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DoJqKSKAX/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@dirtywhitehlsc?si=ZTxWc1ROeITihYA5
