About Me
A crash meeting at a Brooklyn, NY high school choir hall between then adolescents Khristian "KV Star" Vasquez, 26, and Omar "Omarvelus" Torres, 26, was the unpredictable birthplace of what today is the mishmash harmony of R&B/hip hop double act HOT2DEF.
The semester’s final project: a stilted performance by the choir, which Omarvelus and KV planned to spice-up with an ad lib outro rap verse. "We both jumped out and started rapping," explains a wound up Omarvelus. "We performed in front of the whole school and killed it!"
Inspired by their parents, and artists like Big Pun, Jay-Z, Fat joe, Michael Jackson, Linkin Park, and R. Kelly, to list a few, not to mention the jumble of music they were exposed to growing up (KV’s father was a professional drummer, to say the least), the boys took matters into their own grips, making HOT2DEF damn near an understatement.
The Puerto Rican bred duo joined forces with another local group called Disciples, a Wu Tang Clan-esque cluster that included 11 members total, and began to tour locally in New York City and its outskirts. But as the group began to lose its partisans, KV and Omarvelus were, again, left to fend for themselves.
Ten years later today, the boys from HOT2DEF have not only defined themselves as a team (KV is the rhyme-spitter, Omarvelus is the rapper/vocalist), but they’ve also independently compiled a hodgepodge of their catchy, feel good music including coarse club bangers (think "Cranberry Vodka," a party song "dedicated to one of the most requested drinks in the clubs," as KV so appropriately describes, and "Who Wants to F*ck 2nite," a track of X-rated shock value), music for the ladies (consider "Come a Little Closer," a sexy single inviting la femmes to, well.. come a little closer), and don’t forget their bang-out hit, "Crunketon", a blend of down south crunk and reggaeton, two of the most popular sounds in today’s music.
What’s next for the boys?
Aside from loose dreams of one day standing in between the glass walls of the TRL studios - "When you hit TRL, that’s when you know you made it," explains Omarvelus – HOT2DEF’s debut single, the Sean Paul, we-be-burnin’ based track "Loca," has been on heavy rotation in New York’s Power 105.1. The duo performed for an audience of 19,000 fans at La Kalle’s "Block Party", hosted at Madison Square Garden in September 2006. As if that weren’t enough, they added flavor to the Ecko Brand Fall 2007 Clothing ads found in magazines nationwide.
HOT2DEF delivers the heat on all levels of the equator, and they def know it. As they are currently shopping around for a label to house them, they aren’t shameful about putting down provisions. "We would like to have the complete freedom to do what we please," states Omarvelus when asked what their ideal situation would be. "Once I have 100,000 people saying ‘he’s a great singer and a great rapper, you can’t tell me that I can’t do anything, because then I’ll tell you, you have to tell that to my 100,000 fans.
"They already respect us as it is. We just want total control of our music, that’s all."...Now, drip a sweat to that.
