Diaz probably wasn't born with a microphone in his hand, but one thing is for sure: He wasn't born with skis on his feet. The son of Spanish Rafael and Norwegian Inger was not quite like anyone else growing up in Jessheim.

When other boys were busy tweaking their rides and partying, Andres was already occupied listening to records and learning to scratch. It was as a DJ he began his career in Hip Hop culture (even if he probably has put up his share of the tags around Jessheim in the early 90s...)

The train trips to Oslo became more and more frequent as his need for new records, clothes and not least contact with likeminded grew, and in 1994 he met Tommy Tee for the first time. At the time, Tee ran the radio station Rainbow Radio - the closest you could come to a Hip Hop radio in Oslo at the time, and not long after Diaz started the first Hip Hop radio show on Romerike.

Years of demos and collaboration on various remixes and mixtapes lead to Diaz eventually getting a reputation as a tight rapper - and he distinguished himself from most of the Oslo rappers, who at the time were most interested in so called britcore-rap. Up until the debut album "2050" was released, Diaz collaborated on albums by Tommy Tee, N-Light-N, Warlocks, Helén Eriksen and others, and the rest is elementary Norwegian Hip Hop history where the next chapter is unfolding at this moment.

"2050" was no huge seller, but got much attention from outside of Norway, where prestigious magazines like The Source, Billboard and Hip Hop Connection praised the album.

A short time after the release of his debut album came a small watershed in Diaz' musical career. Inspired by Swedes like Petter and Ken, Diaz buried his prejudice against Scandinavian language rap, and he was tempted to give it a try. This lead to the track "Takk" on the Salvation Army record "Perleporten". And since that the development has gone slowly but surely towards an album in this style (via remixes with Petter on "Så Klart" and various mixtape freestyles).

"Velkommen Hjem Andres" takes on many thoughts on Norway, the world and the Hip Hop sub-culture without being lecturing. Diaz is mainly out to entertain and to take the music a step further. The album is produced by Tommy Tee and Marco (US) - an underground producer out of New York, affiliated with the old Tee Productions friends, COD Crew.

Along with him, Diaz has played with an international star gallery. After a long term collaboration with the one and only RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, Diaz also was a guest on RZA's European Tour. In addition, Petter collaborates on an intense Norwgian/Swedish battle in the track "Norge mot Sverige".

Another collaboration that could be seen as historic within the hip hop genre is the controversial track "Mitt terningkast" played toghether with Galder and Shagrath from the black metal band Dimmu Borgir. Other collaborators on the record is Kleen Cut and Kapricon on "Stikking", 11 year old Selma on "Hvem er denne karen", Kevin from Warlocks, Opaque, Loudmouf Choir and Kyrre Holm Johannesen from NRK Petre.


Diaz is one of two persons hailing from Jessheim that has made an impression outside of Norwegian borders, the other one is hardcore porn actress Tanya Hansen

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