omen

John Cordero aka omen was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1977 and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1989, first settling in Aurora, CO and then Orlando, the family relocated permanently to Miami in 1995.

From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Cordero co-founded, edited, and published “The Cipher: Miami’s Hip Hop Newspaper” an independent monthly publication that chronicled the emerging Hip Hop scene in South Florida. Featuring interviews, music reviews, articles, photographs, and poetry, Mr. Cordero assembled a dedicated staff of like-minded Hip Hop fans that quickly became the go-to source for all things Hip Hop related in Miami. 2017 brought the publication of “The Cipher: A History of Hip Hop in Miami,” which serves as an anthology of the newspaper’s most requested interviews and features.

It afforded Mr. Cordero the opportunity to speak at the 2017 Miami Book Fair. In February 2023, Microcosm Publishing released “The History of Miami Hip Hop,” an abridged and updated edition for which Mr. Cordero was recently awarded the Purple Quill Emerging Voice award at the Beyond Words book festival.

Currently, Mr. Cordero is collaborating with world-renown champion DJ Craze on an autobiographical book, chronicling his life story and rise from a hurricane ravaged home to global icon.

Mr. Cordero received a B.A. in International Relations from Florida International University and an M.P.S from The George Washington University. He is also a US Navy veteran, deployed twice to the Persian Gulf as part of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.