As you round the corner from Carnaby Street to Marlborough Court on any given Friday, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Carnival had started early and taken a wrong turn somewhere. Levering yourself through the crowd forming a human roadblock, pulsing to the low thump of beats, you realise that the focal area is a small shop packed to the racks with head-bobbing bodies facing the tiny stage in the back of the store. Suddenly hands shoot up in the air, people start whooping, whistles go off and you realise that you are witnessing the evolution of Hip Hop in the UK.

This is the Deal Real, Friday night, open mic session, a weekly phenomenon that strips back the bullshit to reveal the raw, infectious essence of Hip Hop where anything is possible.

Deal Real’s current incarnation at 3 Marlborough Court, came when the licence for the classic Noel St store came up for sale and friends (and loyal customers of the original store) Vincent Olutayo, Sef Khama, Tony Tagoe and Olu Olutayo saw a platform from which to step things up.

It’s not just the open mic sessions that pack out the tiny west end store, big international names are now writing in a Deal Real PA as part of their London itinerary. To date acts such as Pharaohe Monch, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Cannibus, Mos Def, The Jungle Brothers, Chuck D, Kool Keith, Black Eyed Peas, Slick Rick and The Spooks have all done their thing in Marlborough court.

Getting a first grab at the latest vinyl, checking the new talent and hosting PAs for some of the most influential names in Hip Hop seems like any true Head’s dream existence but the realities of running an independent record store as a viable business must be harsh. Are there still times when the glamour shines through?

Olu:
“For me, yes, one time in particular. Mos Def was supposed to come to do a signing but we weren’t certain he was going to show. The Spooks were in that night as well and there was a huge crowd. Vince had gone off to get the Spooks and I was in the shop on my own with something like 300 people trying to get in and this guy just comes round the corner from Carnaby Street and walks up and looks round and it’s Mos Def and I was thinking, ‘oh shit!’. And basically I had to deal with it all. I was sorting out some drinks and stuff and Mos Def caught a vibe, saw what was going on at the open mic session and was like, ‘I’ve got to go on’, and Vincent ran into the pub and got me and said, ‘you’ve got to grab your camera he’s getting on stage’. It was so powerful, the audience was only 2 feet away from him and everyone was so excited, it was just astonishing”.

And it is that infectious excitement that you feel at the open mic sessions and the PAs, it genuinely feels like you could be back in 1983 in a scene with endless possibilities opening up and sucking you in, a far cry from the greedy, corporate impersonality that seems to have swallowed up so much of the modern scene.

Olu:
“A lot of what the shop does is let people understand what Hip Hop is all about. Deal Real provides the environment to allow improvisational quality back into Hip Hop, you know, Mos Def wasn’t going to perform but he saw what was going on and was like, ‘Wha! I’ve got to get some of that!’”

Vince:
“The acts who come through here can understand our approach and can see that what happens here is probably how they came up in the game. A lot of people have said you don’t find that anymore, people vibing, performing, improvising. So by us having the open mics and the in-stores in a way harks back to the essence of it all, you know come and represent yourself, come and meet people and come and connect and feel a vibe”.

So do you feel that the major label commercialism of the scene is killing Hip Hop?

Vince:
“I think the business of Hip Hop is killing it. You see a transition in the MCs that come through here from bedroom MCs who are nervous to perform their stuff for the first time to kids who are developing a belief in their talent and are wanting to put that across on a regular basis. All of a sudden you see a change in the way people talk to them, everyone is all on them, asking them to come down to the studio, let me manage you and suddenly you get people considering themselves as a commodity and the enjoyment starts to go out of it”.

Olu:
“All the kids are after the Bentley and the Champagne, the fur coats and the girls. It’s unrealistic”.

Vince:
“You can make a decent living being a UK artist and concentrating on your music and make as much as someone else doing a decent 9-5 job”.

So are limits to the success of home grown talent attributable to anything in particular? Do you feel that if UK acts got more mainstream radio support, maybe if we adopted a French-style radio playlist quota system where at least 80% of the tunes played had to be home talent, it would make a difference?

Vince:
“You can’t exclude any form of music in England. The quota system may be more of a hindrance than a help and could lead to arguments like, ‘you’re only signed to fulfil a quota system’. The other aspect is quality control, I think once we get to a stage when we’ve got many credible artists and a lot of quality acts the rest will sort of fall into place”.

“We need the artists to come up with better production, you get artists bring stuff in and ask, ‘what do you think of that?’ and you’ll think, ‘that’s rubbish’, but you can’t really tell them that. We need that to improve before the radio supports new acts. Something that we are starting is Beat Club, a producer workshop, where we get recognised producers to teach aspiring producers about their areas of expertise. It’s literally just a forum to share techniques, to learn from people who are respected in the industry”.

So on the whole Deal Real seems to be about giving something back to the scene?

Olu:
“We’re here to make a living but we’re also here to promote artists and especially UK artists. For example, the same night as that Mos Def PA, you got, Joe Bloggs up doing his thing on the same stage. Someone can turn up with a bag of records on a Friday night and just get on the decks play to the crowd. The ‘giving back’ is encouraging the young talent, getting in a situation where the Friday nights are so important to people that they go off and practice for a week and come back to show their skills. It’s about encouraging up and coming artists”.

And it’s not just about the men, every 3rd Friday of the month is Ladies’ Night at Deal Real, where the women most definitely take control.

Vince:
“They are a lot more diverse, you get ladies who are prepared to go up and do poetry, rap, sing, crack jokes and be shit, they are not phased whatsoever, they really don’t care. Not to say that they are shit, it’s just with guys there’s a bit more ego involved and saving face and all that. Girls, you know, if they can do it, they’ll get up and do it”.

Olu:
“We provide an environment, an atmosphere where you feel no pressure, you do what you want to do, express yourself and you’ll get love, that’s the ethos all round but on Ladies’ night especially”.

Vince:
“A lot of the girls that come down are more spoken word and poetry and in a way, for us, that’s good. It’s not just about doing that Hip Hop we know and doing that rapping we know its about understanding that there are lot of things that influence the music and contribute to the music. A spoken word poet coming in and doing their thing is wicked, a classical cellist coming in and doing their thing is great you know, maybe the dj gets behind it and does something with it, almost in a jamming kind of way. It’s about pushing the music forward and making it more thinking”.

So is there anyone you wouldn’t have down in the shop?

Tony:
“Not really, we’ve got Amy Winehouse coming down in a few days for a PA so it’s not all about strictly established Hip Hop”.

So if Nigel Kennedy came down on a Friday night and wanted to play a violin solo, that would be OK?

Vince:
“As long as someone was scratching along with it, yeah. It’s about Nigel Kennedy coming and doing his thing. Hip Hop started from producers and djs sampling anything and everything and that’s what has given it its longevity as it’s been prepared to borrow from various sources and create a sound that represents the here and the now and keeps it current”.

Olu:
“It’s about pushing boundaries. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s evolution, some of the stuff will be genius and will stay and some will be terrible and get dropped”.

With that in mind, I’m off to call Nigel and tell him his career isn’t over, grab my kazoo and head down to Deal Real. Keep watching, something important is about to happen.