Born in Brixton, London, as Deborah Anne Dyer, she is the former lead vocalist for the band Skunk Anansie.

With her previous band, Skunk Anansie, she became the first shaven-headed, punk, bisexual Brixton black woman to front a British rock band. She sang about not just racism but the ways in which the politically correct can feed off racism - a new twist by anybody's standards.