Uncle Murda

Leonard Grant, who records as Uncle Murda, embodies the raw, no-nonsense voice of Brooklyn’s East New York section and first drew notice with cuts such as “Bullet Bullet,” “Right Now,” and his yearly “Rap Up” editions. He entered the scene in the final years of the 1990s, forged a lasting alliance with DJ Green Lantern, and has issued a steady stream of mixtapes, among them the four-part Don’t Come Outside series that ran from 2017 through 2021.

His debut tape appeared in 2005; two years afterward a Def Jam contract lifted his profile, yet the arrangement dissolved once Jay-Z stepped down as president, leaving no official album behind. Operating mainly on his own, Grant still managed to place one commercial mixtape, The First 48 (2013), through an Epic deal arranged by Violator. The same year he and Maino dropped the joint project Yellow Tape: King Kong & Godzilla, 2016, he joined 50 Cent’s G-Unit roster. The following year brought “Thot,” “Statute of Limitations,” and “On and On”—the last two featuring 50—as well as Uncle Murda Presents: Don’t Come Outside, Vol. 1, with several of those releases also appearing under the name Lenny Grant. Don’t Come Outside, Vol. 2 arrived in 2020 and Don’t Come Outside, Vol. 3, containing “Rap Up 2020,” followed in 2021.