Although he has been known since the early '90s as DJ Dez, Humberto Hernandez has credited the majority of his gritty downtempo house and equally sample-laced hip-hop productions to alter-ego Andrés. Hernandez's earliest 12" releases under the alias, dating back to 1997, were so low in profile that some listeners assumed it was the work of Kenny Dixon, Jr. (aka Moodymann), who released it on his KDJ label. Hernandez ended all speculation by putting himself on the front of his self-titled album (2003) for Dixon's Mahogani Music, and has since issued three additional numerically titled Mahogani projects (arriving in 2009, 2011, and 2019), among many shorter-form 12" releases for labels such as Moods & Grooves, Funk Night, and his own La Vida, all based in his adoptive hometown of Detroit.