DJ HoneyTrap first started mixing at the age of 15, initially playing Jungle, Drum n Bass, and a mix of House, Breakbeat & Techno. 2 years later, in 1997, she played at her first gig at the (now long-deceased) Underground on Westgate Street in Bath at the age of 17.
A year later, HoneyTrap started promoting a weekly DJ free-stage (the only one in the city at the time) called Talent, at the Black Sheep pub, which ran for just under a year. Talent proved a very useful platform for lots of local upcoming DJs which also lead to a series of club nights. Sketch (later renamed Swarm) was a series of Hip Hop, Reggae & DnB parties, that took place at various venues, as well as a few appearances at free parties in Bath. This included the infamous
E-ze Love Boxing Day parties at Burdalls Yard, where HoneyTrap ran the bar system in '98, and one of the main systems the following year. In 1999, Honey started a Sunday chill-out session called LifePod at RockBottoms in Bath (again, now closed!), which ran for several months, before moving to the Hat & Feather, under the name Groove Garden, which also ran for several months.
Along the way, came a series of events with the Stereophonic Circus, including 3 sets at Glastonbury Festival 2000, as well as DJing for the Onega Dub Circus Experiment (better known as Onega Soundsysytem, featuring members of Babyhead) and providing music interactive with circus performance artists, in addition to playing the general hybrid of Hip Hop, Reggae, DnB and chilled beats. Honey was also co-promoter for Baths first official legal all-nighter at Moles Club in May 2000, with Smith & Mighty.
Various gigs came along in the form of Petty Fraud Clinic, Walcot Nation Day (various different systems), ReCycle & DnB collective Spinout, as well as free parties, carnivals & regular weekend club spots playing house & breaks (also under the aliases LITTLE MISS TAKE & AUDIENT) as a resident at Moles Club and the Porter Cellar Bar. So far, Honey has played clubs & venues in Bath, Bristol (Thekla, Bristol Academy, Cosies, Dutty Girl/Arc Bar, Malcolm X centre, Café Blue, Black Swan, Skate & Ride), Glastonbury, Taunton (Funkin Fresh, Ether), Longleat (Berkeley Suite), Cirencester (Strictly Business/Club Urban), Cardiff (Clwb Ifo Bach), Birmingham (Custard Factory) Oxford (The Zodiac), Jazz Café, Camden & The Scala, London. In 2001, she also visited Amsterdam (for a holiday), and ended up DJing in 3 different places for the week she was there
She made her radio debut, hitting the worldwide airwaves, in December 2003, doing a two hour live set on BBC 1xtras Spotlight show.
In 2000, Honeys mixing progressed to an avid love for scratching, juggling & turntablism. This lead to the first mixtape proper entitled Honey Got Me Hooked, a 60 min tape entirely consisting of female mcs. According to DJ MK, there hadnt been any all-female hip-hop uk mixtapes from a female DJ made before that one. Four other mixtapes have since been released, Jewels, Hustlers & Hoes (2001), Stylin (2002), Spotlight (2003) and Sirens (2004), through the indy labelKupplabeatphreex, which have received good reviews on DJ Yoda's page in Hip Hop Connection, as well as other mags.
HoneyTraps 1st battle was at Bristols DMC heat in May 2001, where she made it through the pre-lims to the evening heat, placing her in the top eight. Shes battled every year since (2001/2/3/4/5 the only British female to enter the solo heats 2001/2/3/4 progressing further technically each year. HoneyTrap is a battle hungry lady, and aims to continue to practise, progress & keep entering as many battles as she can, partly so DMC have to make the big ol technics champion jacket in a ladies size!.(preferably with purple lining)
HoneyTrap has been a co-promoter & resident DJ at Hip Hop night Stonegruve Social in Bath, where she could be found droppin Hip Hop, Ragga & other stories, pon the 1s & 2s.
Acts that have played there include DJ Dopey (DMC world champ 03 / 04), Ty, Andy Smith (Portishead), Jehst, Skinnyman, Rodney P, Mr Thing & Yungun, Mystro & Harry Love, DJ MK & Supa T, Klashnekoff, Kyza, Terra Firma, Asaviour, B-Bop, DJ Flip (Mud Fam), DJ Madkut (UK DMC supremacy champ 01/02), DJ Quest (UK DMC champ 03 / 04), DJ IQ (UK u-18s DMC champ 02/03), Disablists (UK DMC team champs 04 / 05), Boca 45, Doc Brown & Luc Skyz, Sway Dasafo & Pyrelli, Foreign Beggars, Lowkey, Spellz, Stylah, DJ Snips, Headcase Ladz & Lews Tewns, MC Kelz (Smith & Mighty), Dark Circle, Monkey Moo & Nu-Balance (Aspects), All Creatures, Lost Souljah and Danny Byrd (Hospital), amongst others. It also hosted the DMC heats in Bath for the first time, and was once named HHC's Club of the month.
Over the years, she has also played alongside Attica Blues, Gabrielle, Scritti Politti, Smith & Mighty, DJ Yoda, Scratch Perverts, Lewis Parker, Phi-Life Cypher, Killa Kela & Normski, Fun-Da-Mental, Jalal Nurudin (Last Poets), Ghost, Verb T, Kashmere, DJ 563 (Itch FM), Caramac, Oshin (57th Dynasty), 7th Son (the Planets/Bugz In The Attic), Bluefoot Project, Cantaloop, Ellis Dee, Queen Bee and Martin Grech, as well as Decibel-All Stars, Statik Sound System, Creative Control, Mushtaq, Makif, Versetyle, Extern, Blackbud, Adopted Monkey and countless other bands & DJs.
She was also due to play with a heavy influence, DJ Kemistry, but, very tragically, the gig was scheduled to happen three days after Kemistry died in a car accident.
Inspiration and influences are cited as from Bob Marley to Breakestra, and albums like Portishead - Dummy, Goldie - Timeless, Leftfield - Leftism, Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust and DJ Krush's Turntablism Vol. 1. Aside from that there's the general love of beats & grooves, getting her kut'n'juggle on, abusing vinyl generally and tickling the plastic.
As for future plans, there's a new mixtape/CD coming very soon, and mo' gigs round the corner, so its just about continuing with tha programme! She has beats with big rude basslines of her own heavily in production and aims are to see more of the world, start doing session-scratching, remixes and all manner of music-media isht...
Oh, and to continue the search for every piece of female hip-hop vinyl ever made!....in double-copies!...
Watch out, ya heard?...
