In 2004, Omnionn makes contact with Debil Estar y Fat Lui, members of an obscure Rap project from El Salvador (Central America) called Pescozada. He begins to immerse himself in the such called “Latino Rap” scene and starts to collaborate long distance and via Internet uploads and downloads in order to virtually “merge” recording studios. “I had access to broadband and was sending my beats and mixes with no problems, but they [Pescozada] had to send their premixes and uncompressed vocals via a 56kbps modem… This took them days in some cases”. He began to notice the difficulties artists in other countries have to face in order to make their art possible and that he and many other musicians and producers took for granted in The States.

Very few groups in Latin America had the studio experience and technology available in more developed countries, and traveling visas to the U.S. for many of these inner-city artists where almost impossible to adquire. Thus, in 2007 Omnionn makes the decision to leave California, store a state-of-the-art recording studio in a shipping container, and establish himself in El Salvador, Central America, his parents’ home country.

Rap in many Latin American countries had more barriers besides technology gaps. The genre was stigmatized [more so than now] as being the “soundtrack” to violent gangs, undesired deportees from the U.S. and other countries, as well as opposed by many society sectors not confortable with freedom of speech and political criticism. After a bloody and violent 12-year civil war in El Salvador (1980-1992) society was reluctant and afraid of the lyrics in Pescozada’s songs dennouncing police and army brutality, lack of political freedom, systematic concentration of wealth and power amongst a few families, post-war-syndrome ridden populations, and justice impunity by government officials. Radio stations in El Salvador preferred playing uncut, raw-explicit versions of 2 Live Crew songs than rotating a Pescozada track. This was not happening only in El Salvador, but in almost all countries in the Americas.

“I decided to fight ‘image with image’”, Omnionn explains. “A professional website, which eventually won a Central American developers award by Microsoft, sophisticated quality studio photos, email and web campaigns targeted at getting the attention of newspapers, radio, TV and magazines in USA and Europe where Salvadoran communities escaping civil war and economic oppression resided. They became our main audience”. It was not long before newspapers like El País (Spain), National Geographic and Discovery LLC (USA), BBC Network (U.K) and other international media were spreading Pescozada’s message thru interviews and exposés. Large labels like Univision Music Group released singles and remixes produced by Omnionn. That international exposure eventually captured the attention of local press and media. “Pescozada became more popular outside of El Salvador than within Central America, and Salvadoran immigrants communities (first and second generations) were receiving good quality productions which rivaled American Hip Hop, and that reflected much directly their reality, their background, their idiosyncrasies, in their [or their parents'] language”.

Pescozada opened the door for more groups in the region which now enjoy more acceptance from Central American media. You can find out more regarding Pescozada, trajectory and current discography  by visiting the official website.