Drum’n’bass and two-step DJ Reid Speed (real name: Reid Rosson) started DJing her senior year in high school, two years after she entered New York City’s dance music community. Formally known as Reid Margolis, Speed started playing out just short of a year after she began spinning. Her local career swiftly took off, as she was soon playing at a large handful of local parties and received her first rotating residency, all within two years. Her affiliation with Stuck on Earth promotions began when founder, Chris Kausch, caught her at a local event.  Reid is not a DJ who can be easily pigeonholed into one specific subgenre. “I play everything,” she says. “I like a little bit of everything. I will not be about one sound; I refuse to.”

In April of 1998, her knowledge and experience landed her a job at DJ Dara’s record store. Working in the well-known store exposed Speed to many promoters and artists and gave her an avenue to further her DJing. The job also lead to her residency at DJ Seoul’s Direct Drive nights. She has worked on productions with FS (of Ming & FS) and her first mix CD, Reeespect, was released through Stuck on Earth in early 2001.

The origins of her DJ name, it’s neither as glamorous (“speed” as in “velocity of dnb”) nor as controversial (“speed” as in “I’ve been up for three days straight”). “It was just basically because I started DJing and I met a bunch of people. There was a guy I started seeing, and I tend to walk really fast up the street. Or when I get excited, I start talking really, really fast. So he started calling me ‘Speedy.’ Then they decided that my DJ name should be Reid Speed.” There you have it, folks. “So, no,” she proclaims, laughing, “it has nothing to do with drugs!”