The idea of being self-made and giving back to the community was ingrained in LA rapper Nipsey Hussle â real name Ermias Davidson Asghedom â from the beginning. In an early interview with Hard Knock TV, a fresh-faced Nipsey revealed heâd rather invest in real estate than jewellery. âInvest in some assets rather than liabilities like diamonds and cars!â he urged his fans, looking right down the barrel of the camera. âA real asset should take care of your people. Material things ainât nothing; they are fuelled by insecurity.â
This level of self-awareness was refreshing, particularly for an artist who grew up amid an L.A. rap scene built on egotistical references to shiny low riders and gold Death Row Records chains. Sure, the raw aesthetic of Nipsey’s music and his gruff vocal delivery both represented West Coast gangster rap at its purest, wearing influences such as Above The Law, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube openly, but while those artists often painted bleak pictures of their communities, Nipseyâs underlying message was always one of hope, and this is what made his voice so powerful.
His death yesterday (March 31) at 33 years of age has sent shockwaves through hip-hop. On the track âLoveâ, from potent early mixtape âThe Marathonâ, he raps: âShowed my mother Iâm a gangbang graduate / Pioneered the transition from this crippin’ wasnât easy / But I mastered it / Built my own lane / Ainât no nigga ever hand me shit!â This track perhaps best represented Nipsey Hussleâs mission statement as a rapper â his existence was about showing working class black youth that they could grow beyond their area code and achieve enduring success. After all, being a Crip from Crenshaw never held Nipsey back, so why should a humble beginning prevent anyone else from fulfilling their dreams?
The blistering pace at which Nipsey Hussle released this decadeâs classic mixtapes â via his All Money In label â has only really been equalled by Future and Gucci Mane. He effortlessly dropped sun-drenched banger after banger, with tracks such as âChecc Me Outâ, âCount Up That Loot; and âForever On Some Fly Shitâ (on the latter he prophetically talks about his own death, rapping, âMurder is a fact when you out here in the fieldâ) becoming anthems in the street even if radio spins eluded them.
He achieved all this with a pioneering understanding of business that showed a whole generation of indie rappers â from Macklemore to Chance The Rapper â that they didnât necessarily need a label to make money or grow their personal brand. Take the release strategy for his 2013 mixtape âCrenshawâ. Nipsey sold a limited run of 1,000 copies at $100, winning admirers such as Jay-Z, another drug dealer turned rap entrepreneur, who was impressed by the rapperâs hustle and subsequently became a close friend. His next mixtape, âMailbox Moneyâ, saw Nipsey release 100 copies, each with a price tag of $1,000. Once again, every single copy sold out.
This business acumen extended beyond music, too, with an entrepreneurial Nipsey owning various shops and restaurants across Los Angeles’ inner city, employing homeless people at many of these establishments in order to give them a second chance. He was famous locally for his generosity, once buying a pair of sneakers for every student at the 59th Street Elementary School and donating money to renovate the schoolâs playground and basketball courts. The city of Los Angeles hadnât seen a rapper this generous since Tupac Shakur.
He was shot to death outside his Marathon clothing store in Crenshaw, which is just a stoneâs throw from the âhood where Nipsey grew up. Itâs unclear whether the LAPD have any suspects for the shooting, with Mark Ridley-Thomas, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors who represents the southern part of the city, poignantly stating: “Our communities have lost too many young men and bright futures to the scourge of gun violence. For healing to occur, even from this terrible incident, justice must be sought through legal means, and community peace must be found.”
Not even a year has passed since fellow rapper XXXTentacion was also shot to death, with an ugly recklessness creeping back into hip-hop culture, as artists put themselves at risk by riding a wave of violence and controversy to get trending and onto the charts. Nipseyâs murder hurts so much because he was thriving artistically and still had so much more to give to the world; there was a real sense he wanted to help the next Nipsey Hussle find his or her voice, be that through business or music.
Working his way up from the independent scene, Nipseyâs 2018 album âVictory Lapâ also marked his studio debut as a rapper, and he didn’t look out of place when nominated for a Grammy alongside heavyweight names such as Cardi B, Travis Scott and Pusha T. It was the most polished album of his career, with a bigger budget allowing the rapper to be more ambitious sonically. The reassuringly human introspection of tracks such as âDouble Upâ and âDedicationâ, where Nipsey boldly proclaimed he was the â2Pac of [his] generationâ, made us feel like we had a personal stake in his underdog story.
But even when Nipsey was flexing and living the good life on album highlight âGrinding All My Lifeâ, he remained fearful of death, seemingly resigned to the fate that often goes with balancing fame and being active in the street (Nipsey was a part of the infamous Rollinâ 60s Crips set). On this track, he eerily raps: âLook, I’m married to this game / that’s who I made my wife / Said I’ll die alone / I told that bitch she prolly right.â
Nipsey was many things to many people. He was a pioneering rapper, entrepreneur, hustler, father, son, partner to actor Lauren London, and anti-Trump activist (his guest verse on YGâs Fuck Donald Trump is pure poetry). We shouldnât allow his dark, violent death to define a life that was so full of light.
In that early interview with Hard Knock TV, a young Nipsey is asked how he feels about black-on-black violence, and I hope the message of unity in his reply is ultimately what people remember him for: âAs black people we have a common enemy; itâs the capitalists who are taking our assets and colonising our rap culture. We havenât got time to have issues among ourselves.â