Omar Santana

Omar Santana Biography

This tale from the hardside begins back in the early '80's in the metropolis that we know as New York City. John "Jellybean" Benitez's residency at The Funhouse Club in Manhattan had fulfilled the job of inspiring a whole new generation to take the sound of dance music well into the future and beyond. One of these disciples went by the name of Omar Santana. Straight outta the borough of Queens in New York, Omar slowly began to make a name for himself by DJ'ing as part of the Dynamic Rockers crew, putting on jams, sound-battles and creating a solid underground vibe to rock the city with. Through this, Omar started linking up with likes of Arthur Baker as well as the Tommy Boy and Sleeping Bag Records camps. This led on to much studio action as he started producing in a big way and during the '80's worked alongside some of the true sound pioneers like Mantronix, Boogie Boys, T la Rock and Stetsasonic. The man was now on a proper roll and going from strength to strength by editing and remixing such artists as Public Enemy, Janet Jackson, Simply Red, Quincy Jones and The Rolling Stones. The list is endless... Omar was in serious demand and very quickly became known as one of the "Editing Kings" who would consequently stand the test of time as an inspiration for all future warriors in the trade of cut-up beats and sound. The time had come for Omar to create an outlet for his material, so H2OH Recordings the came into being, releasing it's own brand of Hardcore flava, the label built up a strong reputation for itself and such was it's succes that a sister label by name of Tricked Out Recordings was brought into operation to concentrate and add even greater ammunition to the audio warfare in beats that was going on inside his head by setting the agenda for the Hard Hop/breaks sounds in America.