Though their hardcore past is often glossed about, notably due to the success of the Mr Kirk's Nightmare EP (the track's notoriety was mainly due to the sample which read "Mr Kirk, your son is dead."), 4 Hero was originally founded when Dego , Mark Mac , Gus Lawrence and Ian Bradouille decided to set-up a pirate radio in the end of the eighties. After unfruitful attempts at launching a Hip-Hop project, the quartet decided to create their own imprint : Reinforced records and began releasing a blend of house music, reggae and ragga that would later be known as jungle or drum & bass.

Their style became more jazzy throughout the nineties resulting in three highly acclaimed albums, Parallel Universe , Two Pages and Creating Patterns , either side of the turn of the 21st century. Although, by the time 4 Hero's first album hit the shelves, Gus Lawrence and Ian Bradouille had already stepped back from production to management activities and from then on remained in the shadow of Mark Mac & Dego . 4 Hero has always retained elements of drum & bass but has moved on into new directions. This prolongates past experience since 4 Hero always was about different kinds of sounds and both Dego and Mark Marc had already came up with different material be it hip hop (Dego as Tek 9 ) or more dancefloor-oriented music (Mark Marc as Manix).

In the beginning of the 21st century Dego and Mark became active players of the so-called West London scene both as individual producers/remixers and collectively under the Nu Era moniker.