The camera pans over an abandoned graffitied warehouse. Standing proud next to a mountain of tires, a young man wearing ripped, low-slung jeans and a Gucci sweatband, freestyles about people dying in the streets, fierce independence, and rebounding from ruin.
The rapper “Soul Hoodrich,” also known as Rasoul Grant, used to express his restrained anger through rhymes. Defying the odds, he was trying to save up enough money to propose to his longtime girlfriend at Christmas, leave Germantown, and buy a house in a safer neighborhood. A math whiz, he was studying to be an accountant at Harcum College. And, one day, he hoped to become the ultimate father.
“Need a Purple Heart for the Sh** I Survived,” was Rasoul’s Instagram tagline. Despite losing several of his friends and his stepfather to gun violence, his heart was full.
Bouncing on top of an exercise ball in the corner of his mother’s bedroom, Rasoul was sensitive and emotional.
“He told me, ‘I’m trying to do my best. I want you to be proud of me,” Pauline Freeman said.
On Feb. 27, 2020, Rasoul was fatally shot multiple times while exiting a car on West Logan Street in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.
Rasoul with his mother Pauline
Pauline’s husband and Rasoul’s stepfather, Terrance Freeman, was murdered five weeks prior in his gold Buick. He was 29 and tried his best to look out for Rasoul, his wife said. Both cases remain unsolved; Pauline believes that the two crimes are not connected.
Less than three hours before Rasoul’s death at around 10 p.m., Pauline heard gunshots and urged her son not to leave his house. He didn’t listen. He was hardheaded, she recalled.
“For them to just take my only son. It’s a pain that I can’t even describe,” she said. “It’s like the worst hole in your heart.”
As a child growing up in Mount Airy and Germantown, Rasoul enjoyed inventing games, such as sprinting from the living room to the bedroom and doing flips on the mattress. Pretty soon, he was dazzling the ladies, recalled his younger sister, Amanda Millien. He would wave at a group of 10 girls calling him from the street below their apartment.
“He knew he was cute,” she said.
Rasoul was an impeccable dresser, all the way down to his luxury-brand underwear. He ironed his Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts that he wore two sizes too small to flaunt his toned chest. Underneath, was an enormous tattoo of his mother’s name adorned with angel wings.
“He had to make himself look presentable before he comes outside,” Pauline said. “He was like a family celebrity. He just wanted to live his best life.”
Inevitably, Rasoul was always the last to arrive for Thanksgiving.
“His teeth were so white that they lit up a room,” Amanda said. “He didn’t do anything but show up and make everybody laugh.”
Rasoul was adamant that he would not struggle as Pauline had — a single mother working two jobs to clothe and feed three children. Tymia Bailey is Rasoul’s other younger sister.
In 2013, Rasoul was interviewed by a local CBS affiliate during a Career Day at Mastery Charter School.
Rasoul at the recording studio
“I’m learning that you have to be determined and you have to push yourself and strive,” the tenth-grader and aspiring rapper told the reporter.
Rasoul later attended YES Charter Academy, where he continued to be a top-scorer at his school basketball games.
After Terrance died, Rasoul regularly checked in on his mom, bringing her bags of mangoes —her favorite — and complimenting her as he touched her hair. “I’m going to be there for you like you’ve been there for me,” he assured her.
He was a doting uncle, equipped with juice packs and Pokémon paraphernalia.
On YouTube, his rap videos racked up more than 1,000 views.
“They prayed on my downfall,” he roared over an insistent beat. “I fell and came back in better condition.”
“Sometimes that’s where I go to hear his voice,” his mother said.
A reward of up to $20,000 is available to anyone that comes forward with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for Rasoul’s murder. Anonymous calls can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS.
Resources are available for people and communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.
A portrait of Rasoul is included in the latest exhibition of Souls Shot: Portraits of Gun Violence.
Date: 2020-02-27
Location: 1 W Logan St, Philadelphia, PA
