Cover Story - The Quest for Hegemony (cont'd)
As her apprentice, Don Omar deeply appreciates the knowledge he’s gained thus far. “I think it is an honor to get to know a woman,” he said, “who made me discover such an impressionable world that was so new and real like this passion I feel for the art of acting. She is simply brilliant.”
By the end of January 08’, he was already slated to join the cast of a highly anticipated movie. “I’ll be entering the cast of The Fast and the Furious 4,” he said of his first major role. “At the end of February I should have a script, go do photography, and from there I’ll be waiting for that new adventure. I’m getting a chance to put my training to use. This is definitely an opportunity that has been presented to me so I am certainly looking forward to making the most of it.”
Most of you may or may not know that Don is no stranger to the Fast/Furious franchise. At the end of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, his song “Bandoleros” (featuring Tego) comes on when Vin Diesel’s character is about to race the protagonist of the film just before the credits appear.
DON OMAR FOR PRESIDENTE
After the platinum success of 2004’s The
Last Don (both standard and live/dvd editions),
he founded All Star Records in 2005.
To his delight, the singer turned actor/entrepreneur
has seen the depth of his label
roster increase. That roster of talent now
embodies Omar’s new label El Orfanato [The
Orphanage], which replaces the old imprint
and is made up of both women and men. “They are a super-talented group who have
all impressed me,” says Don.
While there are several different groups
within the label Don comments on, “Marcy
Place, who sing bachata. Their music is
among those downloaded on the Internet
most frequently. And that’s without even
having an album out. So as far as future
projects are concerned, I can tell you about
Marcy Place and El Orfanato. And our projects
are always going to receive all the necessary
attention because our top priority is
the success of the company.”
During the interview, Don Omar credited
collaborations with Aventura as being one
of the earliest factors that helped him gain
recognition in New York City after arriving in
2002. It was an experience both parties enjoyed
as “it was mutually beneficial.” So with
a strong existing market for that music, it’s
no wonder he made such acquisitions. Fans
should expect una descarga de bachata urbana
in the coming months from his label.
THE REST IS HISTORY...
The peace and tranquility he’s found upon reaching stardom are symbols of a long journey he’s traveled from the time he was coming up in the pueblo of Carolina where images of broken families, murder, and drugs were and still are a reality.
“You know that it’s hard,” he said of his childhood. “We live in a beautiful place but it’s hard to grow up here. Poverty is the order of the day. We are poor and us poor people never used to help each other. It was difficult because there were a lot of things that I saw that I’ll never forget. I can tell you that I can do bad but I can also do good. I prefer doing good but I learned everything from my barrio. I learned about good actions that can be done from the heart and about bad ones that have to be done out of necessity.”
With that said, it’s amazing to see how many have made it in reggaeton music from that area. Don Omar’s family hails from a part of Vistamar - a working class urbanizacion in Carolina that lies just outside of La Ceramica, which is viewed as the poorer of the two. About a block away, inside the boundaries of the latter, is where the siblings Lennox (from Zion y Lennox) and Mackie (From Yaga y Mackie) are from. Zion himself is also from Vistamar. Other notables outside of that immediate area who are also from Carolina include Tito El Bambino, Hector El Father, and Voltio.
declared, “we wouldn’t form salsa parties
because we weren’t into it in those days but
still we’ve always revered people like Gilberto
[Santa Rosa], Hector Lavoe, and Ismael
Rivera. Our thing was parties de marquecina
[garage/front porch jams].
“Those were the type of things that at
least to me and a lot of artists in this genre
who also came from Carolina that made us
continue this movement that is something
we’ve experienced at a very young age.”
These parties provided local MCs and
DJs with a platform to display their skills
during the early stages of reggaeton. Of
course, this was all the result of the innovations
of a Panamanian music legend. “The
impact that El General had when he came
out with his music was worldwide,” Don said
of the man who is considered the patriarch
of Spanish reggae. “That was global for all
Latinos. I have a tremendous amount of respect
for him. He changed me completely.
For me it changed my life entirely because
it’s music that affected what everybody is
doing today.”
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