Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US black) the end result, the final assessment, the absolute truth.

1972		(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 170: So just what is the reason, the real deal.
1980		Afrika Bambaataa ‘Zulu Nation Throwdown’ 🎵 It’s the real deal that makes you feel / Like, you got sex appeal.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 100: I told you the real deal then, and I’d tell it to you now.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 352: I knew what that was about. I knew the real deal.
2004		C. Hiaasen Skinny Dip 184: Is this the real deal, or is it just part of the setup?
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘This guy Devane, he’s the real deal. He’s smart’.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] ‘This sounds like the real deal’.
2014		me-stepmums-too-fuckin-hot-mate at www.fakku.net 🌐 ‘I’ve had...the thought of you in your knickers in me spank bank for yonks’ ‘I-is the real deal as you thought?’.
2022		A. Kirzman Giuliani 31: [H]e was the real deal, an extraordinarily gifted lawyer and born leader.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 115: ‘[T]here were a lot of guys [...] said they’d done all sorts of bad shit [...] Some of them were full of it. Others were the real deal’.