Lords of the Underground, the legendary hip hop trio from the early-’90s golden age of the genre, are sat in a cellar under the 200-capacity Silver Bullet in Finsbury Park. Found at the bottom of a rickety staircase where your shoulders scrape both walls, they are in high spirits, smoking and joking with their small entourage as they relax among the beer barrels before tonight’s performance, the most intimate of their 20th anniversary tour.

DJ Lord Jazz, and MCs Doitall and Mr Funke have been part of the trio for more than half their lives, releasing their first single Psycho fresh out of university some 20 years ago.

As Run DMC pumps through the ceiling, the trio start to reminisce about the music they grew up with.

“I grew up listening to and analysing my mum listening to music,” says Doitall, “My mum was, is my everything.

“When you’re a little child and you’ve one parent in the house, you look up to them. James Brown and Evelyn Champagne King, The Spinners and Marvin Gaye – I was just, wow, that made her feel like that, so it had to be the greatest thing in the world.”

“I was fortunate in the sense I had a musical family,” explains Mr Funke, “we would play all the records and dance with each other in the living room on a Friday night because we couldn’t afford to go to the club.”

It was on these foundations that the trio pursued DJing and MCing, forming their outfit at Shaw University, North Carolina.

“I meet this guy [Doitall] and his flow is just crazy,” says Lord Jazz, “I’m like wow. He comes full of energy, spittin’ and rhyming for days.”

“Jazz was cool as hell,” says Doitall, “nice cardigan sweaters on!”

“We went around to the parties,” remembers Lord Jazz, “freestyling, just having a good time with it. Then later on somebody told me about Mr Funke – check him out, his flow was crazy, his voice was crazier.”

The Lords became a favourite of the party circuit and were spotted by the cousin of Marley Marl, the legendary producer who had scored success with Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie and Kool G Rap.

“He says, ‘Yo, I’m Marley Marl’s cousin, I love what you’re doing man’ - now he talked a lot so you didn’t know whether to believe him or not,” says Lord Jazz. “We sent him the demo for Psycho – he was like, ‘Marley loves that, he’s singing it all round the house’.

“He invited us to the House of Hits [Marley Marl’s studio], I had an old beat-up Toyota Tercel with rust on it. I called it the baby Jag, ‘cause I always wanted a Jaguar.

“We hopped in that man, drove up like ten hours to Marley’s and we pulled up there and just looked at each other like wow, we at Marley’s!”

It was at the House of Hits that the Lords would lay down their seminal debut Here Come The Lords .

“The ill thing about that trip,” remembers Doitall, “we thought it was going to be this big, luxurious studio and it was inside a house. We go through the doors and there’s LL [Cool J] recording Momma Said Knock You Out . We looked at each other and said: [whispering], ‘We made it!’.”

Songs recorded, it was fate that landed them their first record deal.

“Marley had a meeting with [Pendulum Records boss] Ruben Rodriguez,” explains Lord Jazz, “and he accidently put on our tape instead of a tape by someone else. It was Psycho , and Ruben was like, he always chewed gum and smoked cigarettes, was like: ‘What was that?!’

“We did Psycho live in his office,” says Doitall, “walked out of there with a deal. It was quick. Getting to that point wasn’t quick, getting to that level. But once it happens, it happens quick.”

Twenty years later, and the group are showing no signs of stopping. As they make their way to the stage through the sea of sweat-drenched fans, Mr Funke takes the mic: “This is gig number 2,982 – we’ve not missed a show in 21 years!,” as the trumpet sample of Funky Child bursts from the speakers.

As the crown leap to the beat, Doitall spits the opening line: "Born with the funkness from the womb of Brenda, she now likes the Lords but she used to dig the Spinners. First with the style from the birth canal, and now I got the flave to make the crowd go wild!"

Lords Of The Underground played at The Silver Bullet, Finsbury Park on Saturday, September 15. For forthcoming Strictly Business gigs visit: strictlybusinesshiphop.blogspot.co.uk/