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D’Mingo

"Que Vacile Mi Gente"

(CD 1997)

BRAND NEW & SEALED

D'Mingo is a Latin urban artist from Brooklyn, New York, of Puerto Rican descent whose solo career first took flight in the late '90s as a salsero with hip-hop leanings. He then spent the next decade working behind the scenes as a producer and major-label A&R executive at EMI and Atlantic Records before relaunching his solo career in the 2010s. Born Domingo Ramos on August 31, 1973, he grew up on the south side of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in a neighborhood known as Los Sures. In hopes of keeping her son off the streets, his mother enrolled him in private music lessons at a young age. He learned to play the piano and made his performance debut at age 12, when his teacher, Robert Navarro, went away on tour with Ray Barretto and needed someone to fill his spot in the salsa band Grupo Fascinación. This was a tremendous opportunity for the adolescent D'Mingo, and from that moment onward, he was determined to make music his livelihood.

Years later, D'Mingo left New York for Puerto Rico, where he dove headfirst into the island's vibrant music scene, collaborating with a long list of salsa artists and making connections that would serve him well in the future. While in Puerto Rico, he reconnected with an old friend from New York, Johnny Rivera. The former Grupo Fascinación vocalist had just launched a solo career on the label RMM and was riding high on the success of the hit single "Necesito una Amiga" from his debut album Y Ahora de Verdad (1991). The New York salsa scene was heating up at the time, and Rivera recruited D'Mingo to come home and join his band. Throughout the early to mid-'90s, D'Mingo toured all over the world with a who's-who of New York salsa stars.

D'Mingo's solo career took flight in the late '90s, thanks in part to his La India bandmate Miguel Bonilla, who produced a three-song demo that got him signed to Jellybean Benitez's label H.O.L.A. Recordings. D'Mingo's debut album, Que Vacile Mi Gente (1997), was a New York salsa album more or less typical of the style at the time, tinged with hip-hop and house beats. The album spawned a fairly big hit, "Rumba," for which D'Mingo is best remembered.