Indie Blog Archive 009: D Double E
Published 21 November 2014
In 2014 I had the honour of interviewing the mighty D Double E, grime veteran and a total G. The interview was published on my blog for The Independent, which disappeared after a malware attack. Luckily, WayBack Machine has the whole thing archived so I’m able to share all my old posts via this newsletter. Lucky me!
Grime has been a big love of mine since its very early days. Before the genre really had a name I’d listen to, and tape, shows from stations like Rinse and Dejavu on a regular basis, witnessing the evolution from garage to grime first-hand. D Double E is an MC who stood out right from the beginning, thanks to his unmistakeable style and energy. I spent some time with him recently discussing his past, present and future…
First of all, what was your entry point with music and MCingIt started with mum and dad. Every day my dad would play ragga and reggae music in the car, I was really into it and paid a lot of attention to the lyrics. At the same time my mum would always play music on a Sunday. I got to a certain age when I started getting into my own thing, which was Tupac, Biggie and Snoop because we got cable and I’d watch The Box.
Yeah, The Box was definitely a key factor for a lot of us at my school as well.
…and the General Levy’s tune came on, ‘Incredible’, and I was like, ‘Rah, this guy’s from the UK!’. Before I knew it, I was listening to drum n bass. My mum bought me a radio when I was 14 and I’d lock into Kool FM – I clocked that a couple of boys at my school were listening to it, too. Sunday was the big day, they’d have Brockie and Det – at school on Mondays everyone would be talking about it. Me and my boy started doing lyrics and it spiraled from there. Next thing I started filling up an old school book I never used with lyrics, I was writing like an animal from there!
Were you always into writing then, or did the music inspire you to get into it?
Music inspired me, I was more into drawing before that. I liked to draw a lot.
What kind of stuff?
I liked drawing things like lakes and hills, sunsets… details; birds and water.
Do you still draw now?
Not so much, sometimes with my kids. Art is something I could definitely go back to, though.
It’s funny how so many kids from our generation had the same introduction to music; The Box, Kool FM… same thing for me, kids would be talking about Sunday’s show at school on Mondays.
And now I’m on radio every Monday and kids are going to school talking about me! It’s come around full circle.
Were all the members of NA.S.T.Y Crew at your school as well?
Only two members; Sharky Major and DJ Mac 10. Tinchy Stryder was in my school, but he wasn’t in my year, or my crew. Jermaine Defoe as well actually…
How did the crew get together?
I was doing my own thing way before N.A.S.T.Y Crew got together. I was in a crew called 187, which was me Hyper, Jammer and a guy called Ebony J and a DJ called Leon B. Ebony was the one that structured the whole thing, but he was on a different station to me – he was on Y2K, which was a north London pirate. They had Heartless Crew and all of them. He suggested putting a crew together and we got on a station called Flava FM in Canning Town. N.A.S.T.Y Crew was on after us, it was just four of them at the time; Sharky, Stormin’, Armour and Mac 10. For some reason our crew fell out; me, Hyper and Jammer stayed tight after it fell apart. One day at school Sharky came up to me and said he’d heard we weren’t on the station anymore and said we join their crew. I was kinda sceptical because he was a younger, but I jumped on a set with them and enjoyed it, so I brought Hyper and Jammer with me next time. Sharky knew Kano and brought him in and that’s how it was formed.
Would you say that was one of the pivotal moments in your career then? As you guys really made an impression during that period.
Definitely, that was the first time I was at home writing bars all week just for that show so I could leng down. I never used to chill with those guys, I’d do my own thing. I was like a solo robot, whereas they would chill together on a normal day. That was what helped me to zone out. They way I’d prepare for each set was like I was preparing for some Red Bull clash or something, I’d just go in man, surprising people every week. From there, the echo came and I was just pulling loads of different things out of the bag!
Were there any artists in particular that were inspiring you around that time? Whether they be grime MCs, or from dancehall or hip hop..?
I was more focused on building my own style. Snoop is probably someone I’ve taken in most. I love a lot of people; for me, love is when I can repeat someone’s lyrics from beginning to end – there’s a lot of tunes I remember from when I was young, [sings] ‘Return of the mack…’ but I won’t be able to say all of the bars. So it’s like I’m taking things in but not taking them in fully. I’m not over analysing, it’s just music and it’s nice, it’s the idea that I’m into. There’s a lot of music I like, but with Snoop I can say his bars from beginning to end. I remember being in my house at 16, listening to his first album, stopping it, writing down the lyrics, stopping, writing it down – then, when I had the whole song, playing it back and being like, [excitedly] ‘Yooooo!’. I don’t remember being like that with anyone else.
Tunes spark me off, I can hear a tune and say the whole bar, but I haven’t thought about this tune since I was 10. The way I store things… it’s there, but I didn’t study it like a scientist. It’s just a part of me.
So, after N.A.S.T.Y Crew split up grime was still popular, but then it took a dip for a while – what you were doing during that period?
I was deciding what I should do. I was like, ‘Ok, I’m back in this position here, I can anywhere I want, guys will take me but I’m not interested in being that guy.. “Ok, I’m in Roll Deep now”’. I was just interested in doing my thing, I had full faith in me doing that. But then Monkey, Hyper and Footsie decided to leave N.A.S.T.Y as well – from there, me, Monkey and Footsie formed a team. We were trying to think of a name… we had a few write-ups about us and they had stuff like, ‘Double Impact!’ and all these headlines. I was like, ‘Nah man, we need a name!’. I thought of one my old lyrics, ‘You mess with the Newham Generals…’ and I told Footsie, and he was like, ‘Yeah!’. We formed Newham Generals and the name came direct from my bars.
Did you ever worry that the popularity of grime might get so low that you might end up having to get a day job?
Nah, never ever. The way I work… grime is a world but I’m different to that world. If things are going down, I’m not going down as well. I’ve never ever thought of it like that. Me being confident and knowing what I’m doing is why I’m always here, relevant. I’m ready to do the job, I’m not weak-minded. I’ll always be doing my thing, there will never be a time where, because of the scene collapsing, I’ve got to get a job now. I’ll separate myself, I’m an artist. The scene all works together, but each person is a power and there are people who can leave and still be that power. It’s like being in a crew, how can I be a crew with 12 people and the crew died out, then I’m lost? I’m the kind of guy who can leave and be someone. Being a part of something that’s going down, it’s gonna go down without me, that’s how I see it.
So things have come back around, the focus is back on grime over a decade after it first appeared. It must feel good to still be here and to have persevered with it…
I feel like that’s what happens when you put the work in. The work that some people have put in during the times of no attention through to the other side, they’re the people that deserve the respect. Now you’re gonna have a lot of people jumping on it like they’ve been backing it for years – and you’ll have others that really have been there all the way through. It’s like when UK funky first came around and certain DJs jumped on it, then that faded away and they jumped onto the house thing – what are them man on?! I do all different music, but I’m current with it, I don’t dip from a scene and into another, I’m in every scene. If you lose faith and you’re not feeling that strongly about your music then you shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
That’s why I like MCs like Stormin’ from N.A.S.T.Y Crew because he was like, ‘Ok, grime’s not working, I’m gonna go and do drum n bass’. Now he’s big in drum n bass and he still does his grime, just keep things open as an artist. He probably does his reggae tunes as well. Be an artist and give it to people the right way.
Speaking of Stormin’, do you still keep in touch with the guys from N.A.S.T.Y Crew?
I don’t really stay in contact with them man too much, but I’ve got a lot of love for all of them. They can understand my pain, where I am and they can see where we were coming from – with me, they know a next depth.
Out of the younger artists, who’s doing it for you?
From the new generation I like Novelist, Stormzy’s doing it as well. Novelist reminds me of me when I was younger, he’s got the little cheeky 8-bars, repeaters – it’s old school have fun style, it’s skippy and it goes with the beat…
Yeah, when I was at Slimzee’s Boiler Room the other day there were a lot of people in the crowd next to me repeating the lyrics along with him.
I like how he’ll repeat that bar until he gets the sing-a-long, like, ‘Yeeeaaahh, yeeeaaahh…’ When he goes to a rave, it’s that bar. That’s how I got my bars big. Every week, I didn’t forget about it. Whereas some people would write a new bar, bang it out for two weeks then it’s gone and they’d introduce a new one. I was just stocking up, like, ‘Now I’ve got a hundred…’ stored in my brain. Take me back to when I was 14, say the first line, I’ll finish it! I know all my bars. Sometimes I link a man from back in the day and I’ll be like, ‘Remember that bar, when you said that?’ and he doesn’t even remember. You’ve got to be snappy out here!
Do you think there’s something particular to you that means you’re able to recall lyrics the way you do?
The way my brain retains lyrics is deep. Once I write it, learn it and say it, it’s with me – no matter how many I have. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been in a situation where I can’t remember lyrics but, when it’s time to perform, my mind is so deep; I could be spitting the newest bar and then, straight after it, connect it to a bar from ‘94. The way it happens is like magic, it’s automatic – I don’t know what’s going on in there bruv, it’s crazy.
Performing brings that out in you though. I DJ a bit and, if I’m sat at home, I might not make the same connection between tracks that I do when I playing out. There’s something about performing that puts you into a different state of mind, when the creativity flows without you having to think about it. It comes out of nowhere.
From nowhere you’re like, ‘Rah, I didn’t even know these two could go together!’. There’s that free space where it’s not planned, when the beat hits you think quick. There’s no time to think. Sometimes I’m on stage having a conversation, the mic comes, someone’s tapping me and I’m like, ‘Alright…’, the beat drops and I’m straight in. Guys are like, ‘How did he do that?!’; it’s just automatic. It’s that frame of mind. On the flipside, you have days where you write down what you want to say and the performance doesn’t go too well – I work better with a free mind.
All these guys who want to do a rehearsal, I’m not about that… I did a tune with a singer, and he wanted to rehearse because he’s a bit older and from that world – I thought, ‘This guy doesn’t know what I’m about… I definitely know my bars! Does the singer know the bars?’ [laughs]. They’re like, ‘Can you give me a bit more action?’ Some people don’t understand. I’m more concerned with how the mic is sounding, as long as the mic is there and it’s working, this is my rehearsal, ‘Yo! Yo! Yo!’…if it’s working and the levels are right.. done. A live set is live, no rehearsals, not thought about. That’s where I’m from, from ‘96 to now.
Grime is raw, that’s what makes it what it is.
Right. I want it to sound raw, that’s how it should be.
So, where do you see grime going?
I think there’s only one way for it to go and that’s up. The only thing that will be a problem will be the speed [at which that happens], whether it’s fast or slow it’s going up. I’m glad it’s happening now and not when I was 16, not knowing what I was doing. It’s green lights everywhere, the independent labels, the way people are thinking, the support… it’s only right that’s it moving forward.