Entry · catalog no. 1447
keep it one hunnid
/ /kiːp ɪt wʌn ˈhʌnɪd/ /KEEP it wuhn HUN-id
idiom · phrase · U.S. South / West Coast, spreading nationwide via hip-hop · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
To be completely honest, to speak the unvarnished truth even when it's unflattering, or to conduct oneself with total authenticity and no pretense. It functions both as an instruction (telling someone to level with you) and as a self-description (claiming you never front or fake). The 'hunnid' stands in for 'one hundred percent,' so 'keeping it one hunnid' means giving the full, unfiltered truth rather than a diluted or dressed-up version of it.
“She looked me dead in the eye and said, 'I'ma keep it one hunnid with you — that plan ain't gon' work.'”
Origin & Attribution
The phrase is a phonetic, dialect-true rendering of 'keep it 100' as it is actually spoken in Black English, where the terminal consonant cluster softens 'hundred' into 'hunnid' or 'hunnit.' It grew out of the older Black vernacular phrase 'keep it real,' with '100' standing in for '100 percent' honesty. Though later segments and mainstream outlets treated the number-based phrase as their own coinage, the expression was already circulating in Black hip-hop lyrics and everyday speech well before it crossed over.
1990s
Phrase emerges as a numeric variant of 'keep it real' in Black vernacular speech.
2013
Drake's verse on 'Too Much' brings 'keep it 100' to a much wider audience.
2015
Larry Wilmore's The Nightly Show launches a recurring segment titled 'Keep It 100,' cementing crossover into mainstream media.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
U.S. South / West Coast, spreading nationwide via hip-hop · 1990s
Spoken by
Black hip-hop artists and listeners; now used broadly across Black American speech communities and adopted into general
$KEEPITThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Standard36 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
72/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1990
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
2 Chainz, 'Dresser (Lil Boy)' — "Benjamin Franklin, niggas know that I keep it 100"
song/lyric
■
Jay Rock, 'King's Dead' — "I ain't gon' front you, keep it 100, I don't know you"
song/lyric
■
+ Cite a sourceDrake, 'Too Much' (2013) — "I keep it 100"
song/lyric
See also