Don Omar

About Don Omar

The reggaeton king Don Omar is coming to us from an exciting, frenetic place. Unlike many cookie cutter reggaeton artists currently enjoying success, Don Omar aims to lift up the entire genre, and his records speak for his immense talent. The Don was one of the first crossover artists to bring Puerto Rico's underground dance genre to the mainstream English speaking music market. Don Omar has created a complete fusion of hip hop and reggaeton and his English lyrics tell stories of love and life, all set against the gritty backdrop of Puerto Rico's urban underground. Don Omar has appeared on American MTV and also collaborated with rising hip hop stars like the rappers Fabolous and Juelz Santana. With Don Omar, these tracks come across as necessary, organic musical collaborations as opposed to sounding like a cynically calculated attempt to crack the English speaking market, a risk that a lesser talent would run. Remarkably, William Omar Landron Garces tried his skills as a preacher before embracing his destiny as a recording artist. Reborn as Don Omar, he got his start in the music biz singing back-up for pioneering reggaeton duo Hector y Tito, In 2003, Don Omar dropped his first studio LP, titled The Last Don. The album had cameos from reggaeton rival Daddy Yankee and the rapper Noriega, and the hit single "Dale Don Dale" got serious radio play. "Dale Don Dale" was later remixed with English verses by the American rapper Fabolous. On King of Kings, the eagerly awaited follow-up to The Last Don, Don Omar is taking his game to a whole other level. He has no qualms about tweaking reggaeton's established formulas and, on tracks like "Candela", he adds driving rock flourishes to the mix. One of the most accomplished tracks off of King of Kings would have to be the first track, "Intro-Predica", which makes amazing use of celebrated hip hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari to provide a haunting, Middle Eastern beat. As the King Arthur inspired cover art clearly indicates, Don Omar has a high opinion of himself, but he also seems to have the skills to back it all up.