"Junglists are you ready?... Bo!... o'lord have mercy..."

On the 5th July 1998, drum and bass music suffered one of it's most catastrophic losses ever with the passing of top-flight MC Steve Austin [ a.k.a. "Stevie Hyper D" ]. Contrary to public beliefs, speculation, gossip and rumours, Steve passed away due to a heart attack as result of an hereditary condition within his family.

Stevie Hyper D's MC'ing career co-insided with jungle's infancy in '91 at a party called "Still Buzzing" in central London. Never affraid to take over the mic to get known, Steve's first major break in the jungle scene was gaining a residency at Brett and Sting's weekly Telepathy parties the Wax Club in Stratford, East London. Working with one of the major playaz in the scene at the time and with a talent that he had, bookings for Steve started to flow and the direction of his career would move up a level when he hooked up and started to MC with Nicky Blackmarket at the Thunder and Joy parties at the Raw Club in the west end of London.

Steve also the vital part of a very successful radio show on east London's long-running station Kool FM where he and his side-kick Nicky Blackmarket used to destroy the airwaves as part of the station's "Super-Sundays" package. As his reputation in the scene continued to grow due to radio shows on Kool, his workload began to take on new forms as he became a would-be MC ambassador. To keep on top of the heavy demand, Stevie had been to about 60% of the provincial jungle parties in the UK and he had gained bi-residencies for nearly all of the major playaz in the scene at the time e.g. Desire, Innovation, Jungle Mania, One Nation, Heat and Hysteria. Such was his reputation, Steve also had a international following as he was receiving bookings from Germany and far affield as Canada and Japan.