Rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed in front of his clothing store in Los Angeles on March
31, 2019, cutting short a life that had expanded far beyond the music industry.
The former gangbanger had become an advocate for peace and economic opportunity in his
neighborhood.
This is his untold truth.
More than a rapper
Nipsey Hussle was born August 15, 1985 as Ermias Asghedom.
"My real name, it means 'God will rise,' it's Ermias though, that's how you say it…
Ermias, yeah."
Hussle was ruthlessly gunned down in front of the Marathon Clothing Store, which he co-owned.
The store had served as a hub for the artist to sell his own merchandise, and it brought
more jobs to the poverty-stricken community.
In February 2018, his brother Samiel told UPROXX:
"Nip employs people from the area that he grew up with, that he knows,
"What up cuz?"
"Really a lot of them fresh out of prison."
Hussle didn't stop with his clothing store, either.
He announced another venture, Elite Human Hair, on Instagram in October 2016.
In a 2017 interview with Complex, he said that business was booming, making a profit
and paying for the employees, despite the fact that he'd never worked in the industry
before.
One of his biggest business-related accomplishments was a space he co-owned called Vector90, described
on the official website as, quote, "an inner city coworking community."
"In a nutshell, it's a space for entrepreneurs from the inner city to, you know, have an
office."
"I grew up around and here and there is absolutely no space like this."
"A space to learn how to launch a business."
The members-only building offers short-term leases and office space for entrepreneurs
on the top floor.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the lower level is open both to local children's organizations
as well as to individual families.
Gang life
Nipsey Hussle told VladTV that he was the only one in his family who decided to join
the Rollin' 60s gang.
When he was jumped in, it was during a time when the streets of the Crenshaw District
were rife with violent activity.
He would later tell the website Africa Is a Country:
"None of my peers survived."
With his fellow gang-bangers getting locked up on felony charges or, worse, dying to gun
violence, Hussle declared he was one of the lucky few to make it out of that life, quote,
"...mentally stable and not in prison and not on drugs."
In February 2018, he told NPR:
"When I reflect on it, it's unbelievable.
It's gotta be evidence of a divine presence."
He was a 'gifted' child
As a child, Nipsey Hussle didn't attend school in the gritty neighborhoods in his home district
of Crenshaw.
He revealed to The Fader that he actually went to school near his mom's job in West
Los Angeles:
"So I remember being in third grade, I had a homie that was Korean, super smart.
I got another homie who was Jewish.
They used to copy off my work."
His classmates were reportedly always getting invited to take the test to be admitted into
the, quote, "gifted program," but Hussle said his teachers would always look him over, that
is, until the day his mom showed up at the school and demanded he be allowed to take
the aptitude exam.
He told The Fader:
"They tested me and ended up apologizing 'cause I tested off the charts."
Shrewd business sense
After multiple record deals went belly-up, Nipsey Hussle decided to put the fate of his
music career into his own hands and launched his own label, All Money In, in 2010.
Being at the reins of his own company allowed him to get creative with the way he brought
his music to the masses.
He released his 2013 mixtape, Crenshaw, at a price point of $100 each in a tactic he
dubbed "Proud2Pay."
Surprisingly, he successfully sold 1,000 copies of the album in one day, according to Forbes,
and he received a ton of support from Jay-Z, who purchased 100 copies.
Following the success of Crenshaw, Nipsey Hussle followed the same blueprint for his
follow-up mixtape, Mailbox Money, which this time he priced at $1,000.
He still sold 60 copies, according to VladTV.
He told The Guardian that he was shocked by how many people purchased the mixtape for
songs that, quote, "...realistically, you could download for free."
From gangbanger to peacemaker
According to The Guardian, Nipsey Hussle was once busted for breaking into his school's
computer lab, though he denied committing the crime.
He wound up dropping out of school because of the incident.
Beyond that, he told Vlad TV:
"I left my house kind of early."
"How old?"
"When I was probably like 14."
"Okay, so you were on your own at 14?"
"Yeah, out of my mom house, you know what I'm saying, I went to live with my granny."
He viewed joining the Rollin' 60s Crips gang as an entrepreneurial opportunity, telling
VladTV that his generation of Crips put their neighborhood, quote, "...on the map in terms
of like hustling and business."
As he progressed in the music industry, he went from running the streets with his gang
to being at the forefront of bringing peace to the streets.
In fact, police commissioner Steve Soboroff tweeted that the rapper had scheduled a meeting
with the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department and Jay-Z's Roc Nation entertainment company,
to, quote, "talk about ways he could help stop gang violence and help us help kids.
I’m so very sad."
Nipsey Hussle was killed the day before the meeting was set to take place.
Nipsey Hussle was much deeper than the lyrics that effortlessly flowed in his rhymes.
He was a hip-hop maverick and street crusader who was killed on the same streets he tried
so desperately to change for the better.
He will be dearly missed by his legions of fans in the music world and beyond.