For Valid, the Detroit emcee, music isn’t just sound- it’s motion. It travels, it translates, and it reaches into places you’ve never called home, but hold dear. His new documentary, PLACES, is proof of that. Directed by Katarina Radmilović and made in partnership with Serbia’s Valternativa Records, the film follows Valid and legendary producer DJ Head as they tour through Eastern Europe- not for spectacle, but for connection.
PLACES isn’t polished or packaged to sell. It’s raw. Candid. At times even quiet. But within those moments, something powerful happens. The Balkans quickly become part of the story- as alive and personal as the verses being performed. Born in the U.S. to Serbian parents, Valid, in PLACES digs into the cultures that shaped his family’s history while sharing the one culture that shaped his own: Detroit Hip-Hop.
In Valjevo, Serbia, a key figure emerges- Vlada Stojanović, co-founder of Valternativa Records. Their relationship began years ago via Ma Dukes, the mother of the late J. Dilla, who connected them through shared creative threads. Onscreen, their reunion feels less like networking and more like long-lost kin picking up where they left off. PLACES isn’t just about one man’s return. It’s about what happens when hip-hop touches ground in places where it rarely gets the spotlight- and how it transforms in the process. Local emcees jump into cyphers, blending traditional textures into the gritty soul of Detroit’s boom-bap. Crowds in club basements and outdoor stages rap every word like they were raised on it.
PLACES is a love letter to culture, but not the kind written from afar. It’s handwritten, sweaty, and passed hand-to-hand after a set. It’s the kind of letter that comes with a verse, a beat, and a long conversation about where we all come from- and where we’re going next.
