D Double E: Meet the MC | Watch

Real name Darren Dixon, D Double E is UK rap royalty, once described by Skepta as the "greatest of all time".

A child of soundsystem culture; rap, reggae, jungle, grime, bashment... the entire lineage of Black British music can be found weaving its way through D Double E’s idiosyncratic sound. To trace the Newham MC back to his source is to track the history of soundsystem culture, right back to his parents’ record collection.

Although often hailed as a “grime OG”, D Double sees things differently. He’s long since outgrown any old parameters once attached to his music. In fact, his most recent album ‘D.O.N (Double Or Nothing)’ — as with the recent output of many of his contemporaries like Skepta, Ghetts and Jammer — draws on almost the entire UK musical spectrum, from rap to trap to drill, all blended into something indefinable and more fluid.

The winner of DJ Mag’s Best of British Awards Best Rap Album in 2020, ‘D.O.N (Double Or Nothing)’, also featured D Double’s first production credits on an album. Although he started producing in 2006, it was only after returning to beatmaking in 2018 that he decided to spit on his own beats. He made the beat for his own Meet The MC freestyle, which follows him speaking about his famous ad libs, pirate radio, growing up in east London and much more in a series of interviews filmed on location.

Meet the MC is our new DJ Mag Originals series, introducing the most vital artists in rap. Combining a freestyle series with in-depth fly-on-the-wall interviews, Meet the MC explores the stories of these crucial lyricists.

Celebrating an exciting time for the scene, each episode is filmed across multiple locations, ranging from childhood settings to studios, on-location video shoots and more, before culminating with an exclusive freestyle from each MC.

Watch the first episode above, and see the full list of artists launching the series here.