Grammy Award Winner for Best Remixer (2001)
Mr. Hex Hector
Hex Hector was born and raised in New York, and he was influenced by a broad array of sounds from an early age. I grew up in two households, my immediate familys and my grandmothers, Hex explains. Music was always on at both households, especially my Grandmas. I had a very hip grandmother, to say the least. I was treated to everything from Santana to Cal Tjader to Al Green to Tito Puente to Salsoul to the Rolling Stones.
The post-disco rise of New York nightclubs like the Paradise Garage, the Roxy and the Funhouse would provide the foundation for Hexs burgeoning interest in dance music, as did radio shows by the likes of KISS-FMs Shep Pettibone. Hex learned how to DJ, and through the late 1980s and early 1990s, he held residencies at legendary New York hot spots like the Tunnel, Limelight, Palladium, Sound Factory Bar, Nells, ClubUSA and Danceteria. During that time, Hex made lasting friendships with then-pop stars and underground heroes Clivilles and Cole, who first got him into the studio, and a then-unknown club kid named Jennifer Lopez, who he would reconnect with years later on the blockbuster remix of Waiting For Tonight.
Its funny how life always comes full circle, Hex says. In the very early Nineties at China Club, I met a friendly, young, energetic girl. We became club friends, eventually exchanging numbers. This girl would always want me to put her and her sister on the guest list, [and] I always did. That girl turned out to be Jennifer Lopez. Now, ten years later, I wind up getting a Grammy for a song I remixed her, and appeared with her as her DJ on Saturday Night Live. I appreciate the fact that she never forgot about me after all those years.
“Hex’s Grammy win for Remixer of the Year in 2001 confirmed what a legion of enthusiastic club and radio supporters already knew: possibly nobody else was better at making pop stars matter on the dance floor, or making dance divas matter on the pop charts. He has not looked back since, unleashing classic after classic so often, it is easy to forget a few along the waybut not because they are forgettable records. Rather, there are so many that ones mind becomes overworked trying to recall each one. It is that legacy that has defined Hexs career, and which sets the cornerstone for where he is headed today.”
-Pete Glowatsky
Grammy-winner, musical renaissance man, international influencer – Hex Hector is a great example that nice guys can very well also finish first! New York City born and bred, Hector’s career started under the wing of C&C Music Factory‘s Robert Cliviles and David Cole. He’s produced and remixed everyone from Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam to Madonna. He successfully transformed Deborah Cox from an R&B singer into a house music main-stay. His 2001 remix of Jennifer Lopez‘ ‘Waiting For Tonight‘ was nominated and eventually selected for a Grammy as the remix of the year. Later that year his mix of Melanie C‘s ‘I Turn To You” charted #1 on the US dance charts and the UK pop charts. Always ground-breaking, with a very nonchalant and confident approach which translates to making Hex’ career look easy.