R-Deal Biography
Early Days: Born in Manchester ENGLAND 1984, R-Deal was raised by his single mother and close family, with his father passing away when he was only 9 years of age. His main influence on his life has been his mother & his grandmother... "When I was young I was very close to my nana, my mum was only 17 when she fell pregnant with me, still only young herself, so my nana and auntie took care of me when she wasnt around". From a young age R-Deals found his passion in football, playing for Unicorn Athletic FC, and made his way to Leeds United FC trials, in which he was successful. "You know that time in your life when things are just looking good, things are going your way, well at this time nothing could have been better for me. When my father died I found it very hard to cope with, like any 8 or 9 year old would if their father died, I would ask god why would he take my dad from me?, but wounds will heal and that was just my way of dealing with things".
The Music: R-Deal found talent in music when his football career didn’t go so well after a fracture to his left foot in school just before he was going to leave for Leeds United FC. Due to the fracture and the fact that he wasn’t yet officially signed to THE club they decided to put the contract on hold and come to a decision when his foot healed. "I thought that was the end of my life when that happened, I lived for football at this moment in my life and it was taken from me like that. I was only young at the time but I was always told if I fall I must pick myself back up and keep going". So R-Deal did just that but in the form of MUSIC. R-Deal was in his 4th year of high school when music started to play a part in his life. "I seen other people MCing and spitting lyrics to Jungle in those days and shortly after this time garage came along and took the UK underground by storm. The likes of Creed PSG, Viper along with Heartless Crew & Pay As You Go Cartel were big influences in those days. So I decided to start writing my own lyrics just to myself at this time because although I thought my lyrics were good to my standard I knew that they wasn’t to the big MCs in the scene. Then all I can really remember is the Tape I got of Dizzee Rascal, Wiley & DJ Slimzee, and that did it for me, that set me on my way". R-Deal then hooked up with his close friend Warren (KNR) and they started to MC with each other on a regular basis. R-Deals cousin formally known as Invincible, was at that time practicing on the decks to become a DJ (DJ Vincible), so they started running sets and making tapes to give out around the local area. After a while they came up with the name "Destruction Crew" and shortly after this they introduced some other members to the crew, DJ Dubzee and DJ Dark. Building up a reputation they started performing at under 18 events. One of their highlights at this stage was a performance at the memorable Jabba Event which lead to a televised show on ITV. With their reputation growing fast R-Deal and the rest of the crew decided to change thier name from "Destruction Crew" to "No Fear Entourage", and then through contacts met up with "Hit Em Up" members Wrigley, Liquid E & Brux, forming a very strong musical force. Unfortunately due to certain circumstances this formation did not last very long. "The music scene was changing fast, at one time it was all about doing sets in your bedroom or where ever, and passing around your tapes. Now of course everyone wants to do there own mixtape and music videos". After the crew experienced a series of bad patches R-Deal decided to move away from writing lyrics for sets and started to write tracks with meaning or concepts. His first professionally recorded track was "Slippin Feat. Sara, Wrigley & Brux", which they performed at Urban Superstars in 2004. This is when R-Deal decided he wanted to pursue his solo career. "I just though that if I want to take this music seriously and I want to make a living of music I need to change my ways, single and albums are making the money in this music industry not making bedroom sets". So he decided to take up Hip Hop ’n’ R&B and successfully completed his first mixtape ’Inbetween The Lines’.
Names: R-Deal originally started out with the name MC Dee at the age of 15, this was inspired by his nickname Dougie taken from his surname Douglas. At the age of 17 he changed his name to MC Raw Dee purely because at this phase in the music scene he felt this was more suited. At the age of 20 he then changed his name to Raw Deal, Deal in association with the ’deliverance’ of his music. In 2oo7, the transformation into R-Deal began. This change occured when he decided to change the genre of his music and found his inspiration in R’n’B and soul.
Mixtapes & Tracks: In Between The Lines Vol Mixtape - 1 Against All Odds. Featuring the likes of Invincible (Tru Talent Entertainment), Bubz, Wrigley, Liquid E & Brux (Hit Em Up), and Obi One. No Fear Promo CD (R-Deal & Invincible).
Other mixtapes u can find R-Deal on are Invincible - Silence The Critics, Silence The Critics Vol 2, The Show Me Love Mixtape & Promo Time. R-Deal is also the Big Bang Theory Mix CD featurting various manchester artists. R-Deal is Well known for tracks like "Miss You Dad" (Tribute To Calvin Moore R.I.P), "Jezabel with Invincible" & "Fallin Apart with Invincible, KT Forrester & Brownberry".
Up & Coming:R-Deal Is Currently working on a NEW mixtape which should be out for the summer of 2007 (so keep a look out for the official release date).
