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His life is tabloid fodder: a rags-to-riches story of a pastor-turned rapper who’s traveled a few rough roads on his journey to superstardom. But without the poverty, the evangelism, the legal battles and a life-changing epiphany, this Puerto Rican powerhouse might not have become the reggaeton sensation we now know as Don Omar.

BY CATHERINE FRANKE

Born on February 10, 1978, William Omar Landrón grew up in Villa Palmera, a poverty-stricken district of Santurce, Puerto Rico. When his father abandoned the boy and his two younger siblings at an early age, his mother became their sole provider—a transition that affected Omar deeply.

“My mother would go without a pair of shoes or without eating just so we could go to school,” he told Don Francisco in an interview for Univision. “It was really hard to see a woman with a salary of $5 an hour supporting three kids. The poverty was extreme…”

He found inspiration in the Puerto Rican rap scene, penning his earliest compos­itions while still a boy. It was the creative outlet he needed to cope with the fear and uncertainty of growing up in a struggling community.

DISCOVERING HIS FAITH

Life got tougher for Omar as a teen. Stunned by the shooting death of a close friend, he turned to a local church for solace. For four years, he served as a youth pastor, encouraging the neighborhood kids through prayer and music. He even assembled his first band here—a Christian gospel rap group made up of other teens in the congregation.

It would be a romantic breakup, immortalized in “Aunque Te Fuiste” (“Even Though You Left”), that steered Omar away from evangelism and into the reggaeton music craze simmering in the Puerto Rican underground. While working as a DJ, he caught the ear of Hector “El Father” Delgado, one-half of the reggaeton powerhouse Los Bambinos, and was hired to collaborate on writing and producing projects. Soon, Omar was lending vocals to their records, and the buzz he generated set the stage for a musical explosion.

Read the full story in the fall issue of Z-LIFE. To hear Don Omar’s latest single, “Danza Kurduro,” recorded with Lucenzo, and other songs from his albums Meet the Orphans and iDon, go to myspace.com/donomar.