David L. G. Webb, formerly known as Chemo is an English music producer and DJ. He has also released several albums under the pseudonym ‘Telemachus’. As a sound engineer he has worked at the forefront of the

British Hip Hop UK rap, also known as British hip hop or UK hip hop or British rap, is a music genre and culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. The development of UK rap was shaped by a distinct set of regional inf ...

scene, acting as chief engineer for YNR Productions and

High Focus Records High Focus Records is an independent British hip-hop record label founded by rapper Fliptrix in 2010, following the collapse of Low Life Records. History In 2008, Fliptrix was in the process of releasing his first album on Low Life Records ...

. Chemo was recognised by the

Guardian newspaper ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

as a man who “has helped British music move along more than most people will ever know”.

Career

2004 – 2011 - Early Years

Named after a fictional DC Comics supervillain, Chemo first started as a producer and DJ for London Hip Hop group 'Frontline'. He helped found legendary Hip Hop night ‘Speakers Corner’ in

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

. Off the back of Speakers Corner, Chemo worked on albums for

Verb T Thomas Conning (born 11 January 1981), better known by the stage name Verb T is a UK hip-hop artist based in London. Biography Verb T has released 10 albums and six EPs as well as numerous singles. His first release was the 12-track EP ''Ba ...

, Kyza, Kashmere, Manage,

Jehst William G. Shields (born 21 August 1979), better known by his stage name Jehst, is an English Rapping, rapper and co-founder of hip hop label YNR Productions. Biography Born in Kent in 1979, Jehst spent his early childhood in Crowborough in Su ...

, Triple Darkness and others. In 2007, Chemo produced a compilation album titled '' Squirrelz With Gunz'', alongside World DMC champion DJ Skully. A second compilation of his work between 2007-2011 entitled ''The Stomach of the Mountain'' was released in 2011.

2011 – 2021

Chemo continued to produce for numerous vocalists and was lauded in particular for executive producing albums for

Jam Baxter Jam Baxter is an English rapper from London. Since 2009, he has released 7 solo albums and several EPs on UK-based labels High Focus Records and, since 2019, Blah Records. He is noted for his surreal and cryptic lyrics, described variously as b ...

and Onoe Caponoe on

. Telemachus is a pseudonym used for Webb’s solo projects and to allow him to be “a little more artful.”. The debut release was a

7" Vinyl In music, a single is a type of release of a song recording of fewer tracks than an album ( LP), typically one or two tracks. A single can be released for sale to the public in a variety of physical or digital formats. Singles may be standa ...

entitled ‘Scarecrows’ featuring

Roc Marciano Rahkeim Calief Meyer (born February 11, 1978), better known by his stage name Roc Marciano, is an American rapper and record producer. He is known for his intricate internal rhymes and wordplay detailing mafioso and pimp themes over sample bas ...

. This was taken from the ‘In The Evening’ album which was awarded album of the month by

Q Magazine ''Q'' was a British popular music magazine. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series ''The Old Grey Whistle Test''. ''Q'' was published in print in the ...

and named one of the albums of the year by

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...

. Telemachus followed up this album by travelling to

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

in 2014 to create his ‘In Morocco’ album. In April 2020, Telemachus signed to

and released the album ''Boring & Weird Historical Music''

2021 to Present

At the start of 2021, he announced via

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that he was retiring the pseudonym Chemo and would be known as Forest DLG.

Style

Early productions often mirrored pioneers such as

Pete Rock Peter O. Phillips (born June 21, 1970), better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapping, rapper. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned along ...

Havoc havoc, Havoc, Havocs, Havok, or Havock may also refer to: People with the name * Havoc (musician) (born 1974), American rapper and record producer * Johnny Devine (born 1974), Canadian professional wrestler who uses the ring name Havok * Jimmy H ...

Alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

J Dilla James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006), better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer, composer and rapper. He emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michiga ...

El-P Jaime Stuart Meline (born March 2, 1975), better known by the stage name El-P (shortened from his previous stage name El Producto), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Starting his career as a member of Company Flow, he has ...

and

Rza Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name RZA ( ) or the RZA, is an American rapper, record producer, composer, actor, and filmmaker. He is the '' de facto'' leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, having pro ...

- eventually evolving into a more nuanced and varied style - “From beautifully shuffling jazz drums to sinister synths to delicately plucked strings, he displays a vast knowledge of music and an ear for off the wall styles.” The birth of Telemachus gave him the opportunity to call upon far wider influences (

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots reggae, roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2 ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

, West African

Highlife Highlife is a Ghanaian music genre that originated along the coastal cities of present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its Gold Coast (region), history as a colony of the British and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It encompasse ...

) that led journalist

Neil Kulkarni Neil Kulkarni (26 July 1972 – 22 January 2024) was a British music journalist, author and musician from Coventry, England. Upon his death, ''Clash'' magazine called him "one of the sharpest pens of his generation". He primarily focused on hip ...

to describe Chemo as “an ancient, modern and unique voice in British Music”.

Discography

Studio albums

* 2007 - Chemo - '' Squirrelz With Gunz'' * 2010 - Chemo - ''The Stomach of the Mountain'' * 2011 - Telemachus - ''Scarecrows'' ft.

* 2013 - Telemachus - ''In the Evening'' * 2014 - Telemachus - ''In Morocco'' * 2020 - Telemachus - ''Boring & Weird Historical Music''

Collaborative

* 2008 - Triple Darkness - ''Anathema'' * 2014 -

- ''...so we ate them whole'' * 2015 - Onoe Caponoe - ''Tales from Planet Cattele'' * 2017 - Jam Baxter - ''Mansion 38'' * 2018 - Jam Baxter - ''Touching Scenes'' * 2021 - Dead Silk - ''Dead Silk I and II'' * 2022 - Jam Baxter - ''Fetch The Poison''

References

External links

KMJ45 Studios

Telemachus Soundcloud
{{Authority control English hip-hop musicians English record producers Living people 1984 births DJs from London