Valerie Olukemi A "Kemi" Olusanya (13 October 1963 – 25 April 1999), commonly known by her

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Kemistry, was a leading English

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

DJ of the early 1990s, half of duo Kemistry & Storm, and co-founder of the Metalheadz record label.

Career

Born in Birmingham, Olusanya grew up in Kettering, Northamptonshire, and began a career as a

make-up artist A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying makeup and prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other similar productions inc ...

before giving it up for DJing in the early 1990s. She was half of the DJ and recording duo Kemistry & Storm, which she formed with an old friend when they both lived in London. They both started out playing on pirate radio stations Touchdown and Defection FM. With Goldie, they formed the Metalheadz record label. After two and a half years at the label, they moved on to concentrate on DJing and also released a widely distributed

mix Mix, mixes or mixing may refer to: Persons & places * Mix (surname) ** Tom Mix (1880-1940), American film star * nickname of Mix Diskerud (born Mikkel, 1990), Norwegian-American soccer player * Mix camp, an informal settlement in Namibia * Mix ...

album, '' DJ-Kicks: Kemistry & Storm'', which has been described as "paving the way for other, younger, female DJs". The track "Kemistry" by Goldie, originally released in 1992 when they were in a relationship together, and also featured on his 1995 album ''

Timeless Timeless (or atemporal) or timelessness (or atemporality) may refer to: * Agelessness, the condition of being unaffected by the passage of time * Akal (Sikh term), timelessness in Sikhism * Eternity, timeless existence or infinite duration * Immo ...

'', is dedicated to her.

Death

At 2:30 am on 25 April 1999, Olusanya was a front-seat passenger in a car travelling on the M3 motorway in Hampshire, behind a van which dislodged a cat's eye in the road. The metal body flew through the windscreen and hit Olusanya in the face, killing her instantly. The

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

recorded a verdict of accidental death.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1963 births 1999 deaths British club DJs English drum and bass musicians English record producers English women DJs Black British DJs DJs from Birmingham Road incident deaths in England 20th-century English musicians British women record producers English women in electronic music English people of Nigerian descent 20th-century English women 20th-century English people English electronic dance music DJs