Chickaboo grew up in Birmingham with music already at the centre of her life, buying records and playing them at a local youth club while still in her early teens before moving into reggae and soul sound-system culture. When breakbeat hardcore began accelerating out of rave at the start of the 1990s, she moved from playing records to taking the microphone.

Her partnership with DJ G.E. Real became the breakthrough. Together they appeared at major events including Fantazia, Dreamscape and Jungle Fever, with Chickaboo developing a fast, improvised and highly physical performance style strong enough to establish her in a scene where female MCs were almost entirely absent. She became widely recognised as the first woman to establish herself as a jungle MC.

After G.E. Real became ill and died in 1996, Chickaboo stepped away before rebuilding her career in London and working alongside artists including Bryan Gee, Aphrodite, Zinc and Shy FX. Her range then widened beyond jungle and drum & bass into breaks and electronic crossover work, including the 2002 Timo Maas collaboration Shifter, as well as projects with Rennie Pilgrem and extensive live work with Soul II Soul.

Her later career has made her an important bridge between jungle’s first generation and its current resurgence. As a resident voice around Rupture and a core member of EQ50, she has combined performance with mentoring and advocacy, helping widen access to a scene in which she had originally been forced to fight simply to get hold of the microphone.