On the 25th April 1999, the drum and bass scene once again suffers another terrible loss as Valerie Olukemi Akemi Olusanya [ a.k.a. DJ Kemistry ] is killed in freak car accident on the M3 motorway near the Winnall junction in Winchester, Hampshire.

Kemistry alongside her DJ partner Storm was one half of the infamous DJ duo "Kemistry and Storm" who blazed a path for women artists within this hectic man-dominated fraternity.

After droppping out of college in the mid eighties, Kemistry would rekindle her friendship with college-pal Jayne Conneeley [ a.k.a DJ Storm ] whilst she was working in London as a make-up artist. Exposed to the sound when she was in Sheffield just after leaving college, Kemistry was now in her element and in the epicentre of all things acid house. Once she was hooked on this new mind-bending sound, Kemistry told Jayne of this mad and experimental music thus starting their realationship with house. As with quite a few people in the late eighties, the pair were living in a life-changing period of time which would eventually lead them to both give up their jobs to persue their calling as professional DJ's.

As fate would have it, Kemistry took her workmate-cum-boyfriend, a young fresh-faced graffiti artist called Goldie to the legendary Rage club in central London, a move which would also lead him into a career in rave. A few years later and with Goldie now producing tracks and rising within the scene, Kemistry, Doc Scott and Goldie start the Metalheadz label after they start receiving demos from people who share the same passion in this emerging new sound. A year after starting the record label, and with Goldie now been signed to Pete Tong's FFRR, Kemistry and Storm take over the day-to-day running of the label and go into London's nightclub trade as the trio launch the seminal "Metalheadz Sessions" parties at the Blue Note in Hoxton, east London, maybe the catayst of the "trendification" of the Hoxton suburb?.

At the time were there only a handful of female DJ's on the professional DJ circuit, it was this duo's performances on the airwaves, firstly on Touchstone FM and more noteably on Defection FM in London that made everyone sit up and take notice as they going to the top of their field with technical skills and sheer persistence alone. Now with a burgeoning label bearing fruit, the pair sign to DJ agency Groove Connection where they start to pick up more bookings and play out more regularly. Eventually, Kemistry and Storm will play at a raft of major and provincial parties in the UK, europe and internationally, a majority of the time they are picked as the headlining act which is a sole testament to their DJ'ing skills and not just been there as mere gimmicks.

Come the mid-nineties and the pair are becoming a permanent fixture on London's and the more wider national airwaves as they gain a guest slot on the much coveted "one in the jungle" radio show. In their shows, the pair showed us their their love for dnb music as they showcased their skills both as DJ's and radio presenters. If it wasn't for the tragic way that Kemistry was taken away from us, they both would have been HUGE and rightly challenging the so-called big boys for their unworthy titles. Drum and bass music will never sound the same again.

DJ Kemistry, forever a junglist and will never be forgotten.