D Double E has been active for over 20 years, beginning his career in jungle and UK garage music.[4] In the mid-1990s, he was a DJ and went by the name DJ Dan. D Double was at the time in a crew called Bass Inject, alongside Terror Danjah and DJ Tempo.[5] In 1998, Terror and D Double E went on to form the drum and bass collective the Reckless Crew which played sets on Rinse FM.[6] RWD,[7][8][9] He later formed M.A.D., short for Monkey, Alley and D Double E, and joined 187 Crew, alongside Hitman Hyper, Jammer, Leon B and Ebony J.[10] After the disbandment of 187, he joined early grime collective N.A.S.T.Y Crew, until leaving after a dispute in December 2003.[11][12] He then founded the group Newham Generals together with Monkstar and Footsie.[13][additional citation(s) needed] The group remains active as a duo consisting of D Double E and Footsie.[14][15] He and the Newham Generals signed to Dizzee Rascal's Dirtee Stank label.
As a solo artist, D Double E's releases include "Street Fighter Riddim", "Bluku, Bluku", "Bad 2 tha Bone", "Lovely Jubbly", and "Wolly".[14] He is known for using vocalisations such as "bud-a-bup-bup" and "it's mree, mree".[16] Fellow MC Skepta once named him as the "greatest of all time", and Dizzee Rascal said he was one of the artists who inspired him to start MCing.[17][14]
IKEA invited D Double E to create a special soundtrack for a Christmas 2019 campaign,[18] marking the first time the grime music genre was used in seasonal advertising.[19]
