Few grime veterans have a presence as distinctive and as impossible to ignore as D Double E.

Earning his stripes in the pre-grime era with Newham Generals then gaining a reputation as “the MC’s MC” throughout the sound’s renaissance, his cartoony flows and iconic catchphrases are part of grime’s DNA. Remarkably, it’s taken D Double until 2018 to drop his first solo full-length. Jackuum arrived on Friday (31 August) and it captures the trippy, indefinable magic which lies at the heart of his staying power. Holding his own alongside fellow authorities like Wiley as well as next-gen luminaries like AJ Tracey, it’s the sound of someone who’s not going anywhere.

To celebrate this milestone for a true British great, we asked D Double to go through the record and break down each track.

01

Jackuum FM Intro

“I don’t hear many skits and intros on albums anymore so I had to lay down some comedy intro to loosen you up for the start of something speciaaaaaalllll. BLUKU…”

02

Bark It

“Lyrical war can go down anytime or any place, you have to be prepared. TBH I’m never prepared, I naturally merk.”

03

Flatmate

“You have make sure your flatemates liiivee – can’t have them dodgy flat mates causing drama in the yard. Getting you in mix up LOL”

04

Unda Obo (Skit)

“This is like setting the scene for next track.”

05

Lookman ft. Littlez

“It’s a head rollers, dark and moody. Imagine this song as the deepest drama movie, like Belly mixed with Luther mixed with Shottas, and we got everything patterned up nicely, they can’t find us for anything.”

06

Better Than the Rest ft. Wiley

“This one’s been released as a single before, so you might have heard it. It has that mad energy made by Diamondz, and my brother Wiley came through with that strong flow, it’s a skankers.”

07

Nang ft. Skepta

“Me and Skeppy made this one a while back and the energy was just maaad, Footsie cooked up the beat, we hit it with that old skool back-to-back vibe, we just wanted to merk like an MC does without thinking of a song.

Skepta’s verse on this is mad though… “

08

Back in the Day (Stormin Skit)

“R.I.P. Stormin. Stormin is my brother that’s my long time boy from Nasty Crew days, He’s going to live forever through his music, I made this skit after he passed because he was meant to be on the album and I’m just happy I can do my bit to dedicate to him.”

 

09

Back Then

“So this one kind of follows on from the back in the day vibes of the skit before. Swindle made the beat and the song speaks for its self, it’s pure memories of when things where a bit simpler…. Now man wanna face time instead.”

10

Schoolin'

“I wanted to put something on the album for the old skool grime heads, something raw like back in the Deja Vu days and at the same time show the new skool listeners wahgwaan, schoolin’ them yeah.”

11

Dem Man Dere

“This one has that skippy bouncy beat and bass, it will make you do those real neck and headtop movements. “Dem Man Dere” are them people that try tag along to try be up in every dance acting like they know you well, always want something from you.”

12

Trippin'

“This one has a mix of some real classic bars that only early listeners will know and some new lyrics written just for this, I’m just showing you that you must be trippin if you come to battle, lyrical war – that’s my craft.”

13

Out ‘n’ About (Skit)

“Setting a scene for the next song again, the skits on the album are there to put you in the movie and ready for the next scene.”

14

Live Tonight

“This one’s for the gyal dem, I want the man dem to hear this one and feel confident to draw down. If you got your eye or her get in there. Spyro and Diamondz smashed it with this one.”

 

15

Special Delivery

“Just like mail, I’m sending them powers for the man dem, you could be at your yard or in a excluse hotel party in Vegas or something but you know when you need that delivery, so your holla at your connect and it comes through on time yeah, that special delivery just like mail.”

16

Seeing Double

“That tune for all my smokers, light one up and chillout and relax, and get couple cans in too, you get me.”

17

Shenanigans

“You know there’s some people out there that are just not focused, like they might act like they’re focused but when it comes down to it they’re always playing around and not keeping to what they said… Swipe Swipe..

18

Natural Organic feat. AJ Tracey

“Right, this one is me, I like things to flow natural, I don’t like to force things to happen. This track is a chilled vibe and I could just flow on and show you the organic energy, and you see when AJ came through and dropped that confident bars there, Jeeezusss.”

 

19

Money Back

“This one’s a movie, you don’t want to owe my scary bredrin money, it’s not worth it, just give him the P.”

20

Lyrical Hypnosis

“You see on this one, I wanted to tell a story and show you a bit of where I came from but without telling you a full story, like it’s a deeper one. I wanted this one to stay with you after the album, that’s why it’s the last song, you just got to relax and take the whole thing in and zone out.”

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