Wahlgren debuted in 1988 with the single "Funky Raggamuffin/Let the Music Play", a mixture of dancehall and hip hop. He then joined the Stonefunkers and became the group's rapper. This was followed by a few years of cooperation with Rob'n'Raz. Wahlgren then went solo, and had his breakthrough in 1990 with the album Lettin' Off Steam, which was predominantly hip hop and dancehall. His next album, One Step Ahead, had elements of soul and reggae, mixing song and rap. His 1994 release, Original Master, produced by Denniz Pop at Cheiron Studio, incorporated Euro disco into his music.
During the 1990s and 2000s, he released several albums, often in cooperation with Desmond Foster and a couple with Soundism. 2001, Soundism also produced the Papa Dee song "Hottie Hottie Girls" featuring Lady Saw,[1] Jamaica's prime female dancehall star. Kent (Gillström) Isaacs also produced a couple of Papa Dee's more daring and innovative albums. One of the albums they did together was the cover album, recorded in Jamaica, with reggae musicians including Horse-Mouth, Flabba Holt and Chinna Smith.
He is also a member of The Brooklyn Funk Essentials and of Dubchek with David Barratt.
His songs have been featured in several feature films including Predator 2, starring Danny Glover. In 1997 Dubchek made music for the critically acclaimed Two Girls and a Guy featuring Robert Downey, Jr. and Heather Graham.
In the Swedish feature film/comedy Smala Sussie Papa Dee was credited both featuring as himself onscreen and as songwriter.
PD composed music for the stage (Top Dog/ Underdog at Stockholms Stadsteater)
Due to his prolific yet flexible imprint Papa Dee has enjoyed a successful career as one of Sweden's most sought after voice artists dubbing cartoons and movies alike.
Partial voice work
In the 1990s, Wahlgren dubbed Buster Bunny in Tiny Toon Adventures, rendering that of the character's original voice actor, Charlie Adler
He took on Eddie Murphy's character in "Mulan" (1998) and "Mulan 2" (2005) as Mushu
Mad Professor compilation DJ’ s Choice Tribute to MLK (1990)
Diana King's album Respect (2002) in the duet Keep It On The Downlow
In 2001 Chrysler used his track ”Ispy” for its worldwide commercial.
Between 2000-2008 Papa Dee hosted his own radio show, P3 Rytm for SR, the Swedish National Radio Network
2012: Back on the move Papa Dee's currently working on his book Was Jean Baptiste Bernadotte a blackman? and his upcoming album Fall From Grace is in the final stages.
Personal life
Wahlgren was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, to a Swedish mother and a Ghanaian father.[2] His father left the family when he was a small child.[3]
On 14 September 2008, Wahlgren was arrested and charged with grave assault (Swedish: grov misshandel) with bodily harm to his wife Andrea on a street and in their apartment.[4][5] His wife categorically denied that maltreatment had taken place and later wrote a book, En Fjärils Kamp (A Butterfly's Struggle), about how she was not heard in the trial.[4][6] Despite this, a Swedish lower court found him guilty of a lesser charge of assault (Swedish: misshandel) on 20 October 2008 based on testimony from multiple witnesses and he was fined SEK 8,700.[7][8][9] In 2010, the Swedish High Court acquitted him of the other charges of assaulting his wife in their apartment after she denied the assault.[10] Papa Dee was awarded SEK 25,000 for the suffering as a result of the prosecution and SEK 18,045 for lost income and costs.[10] Papa Dee and Andrea Wahlgren divorced in 2012.
^ abEdblom, Kristina; Johannes Heuman (2008-10-17). ""Det är en mardröm" (English translation: "This is a nightmare")" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. Archived from the original on 2008-10-20. Retrieved 2008-10-23. Dagen efter händelsen anhålls Wahlgren för två fall av misshandel varav den senare bedöms som grov. Två dagar senare lämnas häktningsframställan in till Stockholms tingsrätt. […] Men Papa Dee nekar och Andrea har hela tiden hävdat att det inte kan var hennes man som skadade henne. (English translation: The next day, Whalgren was put under arrest for two instances of maltreatment, the second of which was later considered grave. Two days later he was charged at Stockholm's tingsrätt […] But Papa Dee denies the charges and Andrea has consistently upheld that it couldn't be him who caused the injury to her.)
^Linné, Peter (2008-10-21). "Papa Dee dömd för misshandel (English translation: Papa Dee convicted for domestic violence)" (in Swedish). Göteborgs-Posten. Archived from the original on 2008-10-21. Retrieved 2008-10-21. Den kände artisten Papa Dee fälldes idag av Stockholms tingsrätt. Han döms till dagsböter eftersom den misshandel - där hustrun är offret - som gått att bevisa endast anses som ringa. (English translation: The well known artist Papa Dee was convicted today by Stockholm's tingsrätt. He was sentenced to pay day-fines since the evidence in the domestic violence case - where his wife was the victim - was only enough to convict him on a lesser charge of 'assault')
^Trichen, Robert; Kristina Edblom (2008-10-21). "Papa Dee dömd till dagsböter i dag (English translation: Papa Dee sentenced to pay fines)". Aftonbladet. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2008-10-21. Artisten Daniel "Papa Dee" Wahlgren dömdes i dag till dagsböter på 70 á 120 kronor för att ha knuffat in sin hustru Andrea Wahlgren i en husvägg. Åtalspunkten för misshandel av normalgraden ogillades av Stockholms tingsrätt, som dock var oenig i sin dom. Ordföranden och en nämndeman ville fälla Wahlgren även för den allvarligare misshandeln som påstods ha skett i parets bostad i Stockholm.
^ abDelin, Mikael (21 July 2010). "Papa Dee får skadestånd". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-05-27.
