LOCAL MUSIC SPOTLIGHT: ANDRES
By Tamara Warren, Detroit Free Press

Who he is: Humberto Andres Hernandez is a Detroit producer, percussionist and DJ. He records soulful electronic music under the name Andres on Detroit's Mahogani Music label and is known in the hip-hop community as DJ Dez. He DJs for the local group Slum Village, and also has produced hip-hop beats for Detroit's Hipnotech Records. Andres has played percussion for Erykah Badu, Detroit soul singer Dwele and for rapper Common.

He is the son of Cuban percussionist Humberto Nengue Hernandez. "I've always wanted to be involved in music. I never focused on one aspect of it. It's second nature. I don't remember not knowing how to play."

Home: Detroit's West Side. When he was 3, he played percussion at Hart Plaza during a Latin American festival. He moved to California when he was 5, discovering hip-hop culture through West Coast b-boys and graffiti artists. He started DJing at age 11, when he moved back to Detroit. He spent his freshman year of high school in New York City. He was the star of a DJ class at his Greenwich Village high school. "Nobody could fathom having a mixer and turntable in the school," he says. "I came back to Detroit with an attitude." He attended Mumford High School.

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