Local rapper out to make his name bigger than 50 Cent

Hunit Grand, a tall (easily over six feet), energetic young black man, shows up to his interview with the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger swimming in a large black hoodie hiding the ink on his arms—letters "YB" and a cross on his right arm, the word "Grand" on the right side of his neck. His noticeably-shorter, tattoo-covered friend, Mr. 703, follows silently behind, carrying a video camera. He is tasked with filming Hunit Grand's documentary.

"I plan on documenting his steps all the way through," Mr. 703 says. "He can make hit record after hit record. He doesn't sound like anyone else. He doesn't look like anyone else. … Grand is just a superstar and it's just a matter of time and being patient."

Hunit Grand, whose YouTube.com video, "Hello Woodbridge," might sound a lot like Jay-Z's "Hello Brooklyn," is gearing up for recording in Los Angeles next month.

"Hello Woodbridge/how you doing?/where you going?/can I come too?" Hunit Grand raps on his video.

It's a riff on the hook of Jay-Z's "Hello Brooklyn," originally sung by Lil Wayne on last year's "American Gangster."

The song, which features Woodbridge scenes and local rappers, Jay Fresh Kicks and Hank Via, is his biggest hit to date. Since being posted in February, it's surpassed 13,000 hits and more than 100 comments (not all of them positive).

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Mr. 703, or 27-year-old Steve Zeiders of Woodbridge, helps with Hunit Grand's music, editing, marketing and development. He's appeared as a gangsta in a Ja Rule video.

During the interview, Mr. 703 stands in a corner pointing the camera at Hunit Grand, who sits at a conference table in a florescent-lit room. Every time Hunit Grand mentions a fellow rapper, he turns to Mr. 703 for an enthusiastic "shout-out," which occurs so often that keeping track becomes unfeasible.

Apparently, he likes shoutouts. The idea for "Hello Woodbridge" came from Hunit Grand's producer and fellow rapper Jason Fleming aka Jay Fresh Kicks or JFK.

"We just wanted to shout out our neighborhood," Hunit Grand said later. "A lot of people don't know that there are artists who are seriously grinding, getting ready to blow on a nationwide scale from Woodbridge."

The purpose of the song (shot in front of his "mom's crib, right in Woodbridge") is to let people know that even as Hunit Grand comes up in the rap world, in big cities like New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, he's not going to forget where he came from.

"I think 'Hello Woodbridge' is really nice," his mother, Florence Strickland, said during a telephone interview. "It depicts the area and there's a lot of young boys around here that are rapping. It keeps them out of trouble."

Dexter Bland, aka Hank Via, who contributed the third verse of "Hello Woodbridge," is from Forestville, Md., but he's been coming to Woodbridge for years. Strickland is his godmother; Hunit Grand is his god brother.

"I got love for Woodbridge, so I did the song," Hank Via said during a telephone interview. "I think it was a good song. I think Woodbridge needed it… It gave light to an area that doesn't get too much shine."

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Despite the Internet success of "Hello Woodbridge," Hunit Grand has no plans to localize other Jay-Z songs. No "Big Pimpin' Dale City," no "99 Problems (But Dumfries Ain't One)."

"It was what it was, we did it for the buzz," Hunit Grand says during the interview.

He gets a text message.

"It's Infinity," Hunit Grand turns to the camera. "Shout out to Infinity."

Although he hasn't released any albums yet, he is signed to an independent label, Yung Boss Music and is working on a distribution deal. He hopes to release his first album "The N.O.D.P." (The Number One Draft Pick) later this year or in early 2009.

"I've just been grinding, working on my music," Hunit Grand says, though not without the support of his family.

"I love y'all to death," Hunit Grand says to the camera. "Without y'all, I don't know where I'd be."

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Hunit Grand, born Kareem Dunlap in Harlem, moved with his family to Falls Church when he was 6. (Hunit Grand, short for "Hundred Grand"—"It's all about my paper, it's all about my grind," Hunit Grand says. "As long as I remain myself I'll never go broke.")

He got his first hip-hop CDs at 9. He's not sure what he got first or what artists first sparked his imagination, but he discovered all the '90s classics like "The Chronic" and "Doggystle" thanks to Columbia House, a CD club service where members receive a number of free albums up front if they purchase one at regular price later. Hunit Grand said he never paid for the albums.

"I got a whupping, but I got everything," Hunit Grand said.

He moved to Woodbridge at age 13. At first, he only had a couple of friends and a lot of free time.

"So I'd just be in the crib, writing rhymes and I never stopped," Hunit Grand said.

His mother would listen outside her son's bedroom door.

"He hid it from me for a long time, because I'm a Christian," Strickland, 49, said.

She brought her son up in church as an Apostolic Christian. Hunit Grand admits he's "definitely God-fearing," and he prays before he eats, sleeps and when he gets up in the morning. ("None of this is me," Hunit Grand says. "This is all God.")

When his mother finally asked what he was doing in his room, she didn't approve of the language in the lyrics and asked him to change it.

"He was like, 'Ma, this is what sells,'" Strickland said. "I was like 'OK, this is what people want to hear.'"

Strickland said since her son wasn't interested in sports she supported him with this hobby. She bought him a microphone and a stand, a beat machine and a karaoke machine.

"Anything to keep him off the streets was fine with me," Strickland said. "I always thought that he should be a journalist. I accepted him being a rapper, but that's not my ideal career for him… journalist or novelist."

Soon their house was full of boys, writing and rapping.

"He has this ability to write," Strickland said. "He's always been able to write. When he did essays in school, they always posted his essays. He also has a flow. He has a nice swagger. He's not over-rough, and he's handsome."

"Up until high school I was a pretty good student, Hunit Grand said. " But when I got to Gar-Field I got too cool for school."

Hunit Grand said he began cutting classes to hang with friends, smoke marijuana and write rhymes.

Strickland said she took her son out of school at 16. He was gifted, bored in class, she said, and the teachers didn't know how to reach him.

"My mom, she moved me from Harlem, which is the ghetto," he said. "I man-aged to still get into things."

He got into a few fights, "caught a couple charges" when he was 17 ("We going to keep that under wraps," he refused to elaborate. "I got a second chance, I took that second chance."), then straightened out his life by focusing all his energy on music.

He got his GED through Gar-Field Senior High School in 2002 ("His scores were off the roof," Strickland said. "He scored in the top 10 percentile. Kareem is also a deep thinker. He's always thinking. He thinks too much sometimes.").

Hunit Grand says he raps about clubs, having fun and sexy women.

"It doesn't get to a dull point in his verse, because he's just having fun with it," Hank Via said. The fact that he enjoys himself means you enjoy his music."

Occasionally, Hunit Grand will do a track—"not a 'dis' track"—but one where he specifically addresses someone he has issues with.

"People I'm talking about, they know who I'm talking about," Hunit Grand says. "But it's all about more hit records, more money, more 'hos'."

Hunit Grand got his first taste of the entertainment business last year, when he got a call from his friend and fellow Gar-Field Senior High School alum, Jay Fresh Kicks, his producer.

He was working at Jerry's Ford in Manassas, when Jay Fresh called him to help record with rapper Yung Berg, (aka Christian Ward), who is signed to Epic Records and happens to be the C.E.O. of Yung Boss Music.

So, Hunit Grand moved into a Hollywood mansion to recorded music.

"[It was] a lot of fun," Hunit Grand says. "We work hard, but we partied hard as well… [There were] definitely some wild crazy nights at the Yung Berg mansion."

Hunit Grand said he'd typically wake up between 10 and 11 a.m., spend a couple hours talking about what happened the previous night, "where we partied, who we [expletive], and then hit the studio around 2 o'clock." They'd spend six, eight or 12 hour blocks in the studio before returning to Hollywood's hip-hop clubs for another night of partying ("We might have took off a night, but five days a of the week, it was on," he said later).

Hunit Grand appears on Yung Berg's album set to release July 1, and Yung Berg plans to return the favor when Hunit Grand returns to Los Angeles next month to record.

"He's the number one draft pick, king of Virginia and I said it," Yung Berg said.

Hunit Grand, says he's talking to labels like Atlantic and Universal and later this summer he intends to release his next mixtape, "The Bodyment II," available online.

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Hunit Grand has visions of living comfortably, getting involved in the real estate business and opening restaurants and barbershops.

"I want to be the next black Bill Gates," Hunit Grand said. "Can't be the next black Bill Gates because there is no black Bill Gates. I'm going to be the black Bill Gates… I'm going to be rich as [expletive]."

He mentions funding some of his mother's business ventures, ideas such as a salon or a kiosk in the mall.

He hasn't made it yet, but says when he sees his video on BET or hears his song on the radio, he'll know.

Staff writer Josh Eiserike can be reached at 703-878-8072 or .

On the Web:

Warning: Hunit Grand’s “Hello Woodbridge” video may contain explicit lyrics. Also visit his Web site at MySpace.com/hunitgrandy