Santana Banga

It only takes one hit single to improve the quality of life for so many people. In the blink of an eye, an aspiring entertainer can turn into an overnight success. And with that success comes an elevation to the next level for the artist and his entire team. Such is the case for Orlando native Mook Boy, whose 2016 single “Juvy” catapulted his career through the roof. As the infectious single gained popularity, it earned the relentless rapper a major label distribution deal, spots on Billboard charts for his album King Titus III, award show invites and sold-out concerts. The music’s success not only furthered Mook’s career but it also shined the spotlight on production guru Santana Banga. While Mook is responsible for the inspiring, heartfelt lyrics, the tracks on two songs on the album as well as the lead single “Juvy” are creation of this well-proven super producer. Leaning on nothing but his own imagination, Banga built the song’s sonic soundscape around Mook’s lyrics, who was serving out an involuntary vacation in prison and recorded his verses on a cell phone that was smuggled in. The song’s pristine production perfectly paired with Mook’s poignant street prophecies and saucy, stylized delivery. As a result, Santana Banga became one of the most sought-after producers in the Sunshine State. Laying down mesmerizing melodies for the likes of highly successful rappers Woop, Coo Coo Crazy, Peewee Longway and Hoodrich Pablo Juan, bullet points on his resume continue to pile up. “As a producer, you can listen to something long enough and you’ll start hearing sounds out of nowhere. It’s a weird process and it happens very often,” Banga explains. “A beat maker is somebody who makes the beat. That’s it. A producer can actually construct, make a beat around vocals. If you are a true producer, you can make something out of nothing. It doesn’t matter what they throw at you.” Born in Gainesville and raised in the city of Ocala, Santana’s entire life is testament to making something out of nothing. Before he came out the womb, he was a high-risk pregnancy that almost killed both him and his mother. So the mother-to-be had to deliver her baby boy in a bigger, more specialized hospital some 40 miles away. Through nothing short of a miracle, he came into this world a healthy 10-pound, four-ounce bouncing baby boy. But that was just the beginning of the battles that life would throw at him. Coming up the fifth of six children in Marion Oaks community in the outskirts of Ocala, he has been fighting for as long as he can remember. “Growing up there was violent but it’s like any other place. It’s got its good and it’s got its bad. We survived out there. It wasn’t like a place that you couldn’t live,” he recalls. “With my mom working two jobs and the kids pretty much at the house to play, you gone try to figure out some things and try to be sneaky. It all just came a part of the upbringing.” Because his skin complexion was much lighter than the other kids, he was often bullied in elementary school. All that changed one day when he came home and told his mom. She gave him some advice that he would carry with him for the rest of his life. “She was like ‘don’t never let nobody in your space. If they come in your space, just come out swinging,’” he divulges. “Since she gave me that word, I went back to school and I turned up. I found out I had hands and it was on ever since.” He continues, “I went back to school fighting at the drop of a dime. If anybody said anything to me, approached me or said something about my family or just try to test me in general, that’s how it came out. And it followed me all the way to high school.” That no-nonsense attitude got him kicked out of middle school and high school, causing him to earn his high school diploma from alternative school. “Before it was about pistol play, it was about who got hands,” he explains. “If you got hands, you got heart. Either you’re going to lay down and let somebody continue to try you or you gone shut it up. My thing was that you gone shut it up.” Between all the fisticuffs, Santana developed a love for music. When he was seven, his father bought him a karaoke machine and a keyboard. He taught himself to play piano by ear and mastered the karaoke machine. His makeshift setup wasn’t perfect, but it served its purpose. That was until his older brother came home with a mix CD of instrumental beats and the eager 13-year-old adolescent learned about the computer program Frooty Loops. First, he downloaded an illegal cracked version to learn the program, advanced to the demo version and after saving all his pennies, he finally purchased the real version of the program. Nothing would hold him back. Banga got his name circulating around Florida by competing in beat battles at annual TJ’s DJs Music Conferences. Several local rappers were impressed by Banga’s production, including Orlando rapper P.I. Bang. Over the next several months, Banga cranked out several hit songs for P.I. Bang, who eventually introduced him to Woop. Via Woop’s 2014 hit singles “Damn” and “Coo Coo Crazy” featuring Peewee Longway and (1017’s) Hoodrich Pablo Juan, Banga proved that he is here to stay. And after then, his name grew bigger and bigger and bigger. “It’s like a domino effect,” Banga explains. “A lot of these artists be in the studio with other artists. And every artist always ‘say send me some beats.’ That’s how my name started getting hot.” His name started scorching a year later after producing the game-changing smash “Juvy” and the record’s remix featuring Plies and Maino. “Mook’s manager hit me up and asked me to make a beat from his lyrics that he would record while he was incarcerated,” says Banga. “I told him I never did anything like this before. I won’t say that I can’t do it. I just ain’t never done it before,” remembers Banga. “When I got the vocals, I just listened to the a cappella over and over and over again. I listened to what he’s saying, the way he’s saying it, how the cadence flowed, how passionate the words were. Then I knew the sounds to put in to compliment what he was saying.” The brilliant mashup turned out to be their career catalyst. “I got a lot more people hitting me up now. My name done got way bigger,” Banga admits. “Every producer mimics another producer’s sound. They go off what’s hot. I like to go against the grain. If you tell me something is hot, that’s cool, but my sound hasn’t been heard yet. I’m going to stick to being me because my sound will soon become the sound that everybody wants to mimic.”