The hip-hop high life

By Josh Eiserike

Published: August 7, 2008

Hanging out with UNVA is like going to a party. The Dale City-based rap group rolled into the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger one Friday afternoon, cameraman in tow, for an interview, and to demolish some leftover birthday cupcakes.

They're extremely funny and immensely entertaining—and that's before you put their album on.

"We're all swagtacular," UNVA rapper Snake Eyez said. "We're just saturated with so much swagger."

(They're also worried about getting in trouble with their ladies. For that reason, the mem-bers of UNVA have requested not to have their real names disclosed.)

"I tell too many girls too many things, and I don't want it exposed," UNVA rap-per Backwood said of declining to give his name. "We do have personal lives."

The entire group is coy with their names for that reason.

"After the show, you gonna say what you gonna say," UNVA manager Cheeto said.

"We all pleadin' the Fifth," Backwood said.

UNVA stands for "Up North Virginia." Although the four friends have been making music together for three or four years, they only really started as a group about a year ago.

"We just came together and wanted to put our side of town on the map," Snake Eyez said.

Their first album "Violence and Anna" came out in November 2007. It was recorded in Dale City and features club tracks, songs about struggle and, Cheeto said, "songs for the ladies."

"Violence and Anna" is short for "Violence and Animosity." The name comes from when UNVA rapper D.O.E. was in college at Virginia State University in Petersburg. He got on the elevator and watched the doors close. Someone had graffitied "DC" and "MD," one letter on either door, to stand for "Drugs and Crime" and "Money and Dope."

"I'm in the elevator with the sharpie and thought, 'hhhmmmm… I have to add to that'," D.O.E. said.

Hence, "VA," "Violence and Animosity."

"It's like walking with us through a week in our life," Snake Eyez said of the album.

Translation: Wake up, smoke a cigarette (or a blunt), drink some Hennessy, drive nice cars.

"We pretty avid smokers," Snake Eyez said.

"I got a job, I can't smoke," Backwood said.

Despite the glamorous lifestyle, Snake Eyez also said that as full time rappers, they are the breadwinners of their families, often taking care of their mothers or fathers.

"A week in our life for real is like an emotional rollercoaster," UNVA rapper VA Swift said.

He said his father was in prison on drug charges and was supposed to die due to cystic fibrosis. He didn't. Instead, VA Swift said his dad made it out in time for the group's first big show at Club Envy in Washington, D.C., but died about two and a half months later.

The Club Envy show, in June 2007, remains the group's biggest venue to date. But, suc-cess is not only measured inside a club. It's also in the press and on the airwaves.

Last fall influential hip-hop magazine The Source was looking for unsigned talent in the D.C. area. UNVA performed in front of judges in Wheaton, Md., competing with about 30 other acts to par-ticipate in a New York City showcase and photo shoot. They won and chartered two tour busses to take fans up to New York for the event.

"We were walking around Manhattan, 120 people wearing (UNVA label Official Grind) T-shirts," Cheeto said.

The group's photo appeared in the April 2008 issue of The Source.

UNVA also had success getting its songs onto local radio stations such as WPGC 95.5 and WKYS 93.9 FM. It wasn't easy.

"(93.9) specifically told us that they cater to women," Snake Eyez said. "We told every single woman we know to call up the radio station. … They played our damn song."

In fact, Cheeto said the group took 50 people (the majority of them women) to the station's headquarters in Landham, Md.

"They didn't kick us out, they didn't do nothing, they played our song," Cheeto said.

Their song "Leanin'" was featured on 95.5's Home Jamz program, a Sunday night spotlight for local artists.

"We won five weeks in a row and they retired 'Leanin''," Cheeto said.

Cheeto also said UNVA has had meetings with a few "major" labels.

"The phone is going off the hook," Cheeto said.

They're also looking forward to their second album, tenatively titled "Loyalty Brings Royalties," scheduled for December.

But VA Swift said everything is for the fans, first and foremost.

"The ones with the soft lips," VA Swift said.

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