Nipsey is a Renaissance man.
He was well-read and he was
knowledgeable. He was an avid
reader. He was a gangster.
He was community-centered.
He was well-spoken.
He was relatable.
And he represents action.
He represents economic action.
End up at penthouses,
end up in cars Its how you start off
curb-server
or ends up a boss Its how you win
the whole thing and lift up the cigar With sweat dripping down your face
'cause the mission was hard Last time that I checked
When I realized that he was reading
so much,
I looked at the interviews and
saw him read so many
books.
Can you express to people how
important it is to read?
A lot of my best ideas, a lot of my
business savvy–which, you know, I ain't the
smartest dude, but I know what I
know–
you know, came from books.
I was like, 'Yo, if these are the
books that are creating this man?
Yeah, we need jump
on that.'
When that man died, I
cried like a baby.
I was so nervous that everything
was going to end. That all the work
that he put, it was going to stop.
When the funeral's over
and when the procession through the streets
is over, what next?
Like, something had to be done to
help people mourn in a constructive
way. So that's why I started
the book club was Joe.
The book we chose was 'The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing'
by Jack Trout and Al Ries, and it's
a really easy read. So I just wanted to know you guys' thoughts.
And when we say literate, it's not
just with reading.
We're pushing literate in finance,
literate in just understanding
what a real community means.
Just because we're Black and live
in the same neighborhood does not
mean it's a community.
I really admired his commitment
to give back to his community.
That's something that is heavily
embedded in me.
Showing love, raising
the expectation the young n****
that come out the hood and we don't
understand why the police want to
hate on that. Well guess what?
We gonna turn a negative to a positive. Turn this sh*t up man. We out
here. Yeah
Nipsey is from Crenshaw.
He's a fixture everywhere.
We had a business opening, he'd
come to support you. And like, little things like that
just shows how important it is to
always, like, be a champion of your
own community.
You build where you live, build
where you represent.
The luxury of being in the district,
is that we can go to Eso Won nd he
can tell you, 'Oh, yeah Nipsey came
here and asked about this book.' And
they'll say, 'Oh, by the way, here's
a list of books that he's read.
I was thinking about why he read
these books,
and I think he translates really
good in terms of what he did with
his own business moves because the
Marathon store, I've never seen a
store like that.
Like, today,
coming here, I felt like Marathon
came from this book.
Marathon is Nipsey's store.
It became like a hub.
Like, everybody wanted to come from
all over the country to check
it out, buy Crenshaw T-shirt.
Yeah it's gated off right now.
We're in an alley where, you know,
everything went down.
Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey
Hussle shot and killed outside
his own clothing store in Los
Angeles.
Nobody knew how serious he was,
but when they said that he was shot
in the head, the whole vibe,
that whole street changed.
The community was deflated.
He had us on a high 'cause we were
like, 'Look at the community's son.
He's raising this up to another
level. He's doing it all. All the
talk is action.
Finally.'
We're reading books for a purpose
to create a better community and
that's what we're gonna do.
We gonna put all this work
into action
and keep on going.
The next month we start the book
club.
We put it out there that we were
going to have it.
People were on board.
Like, people were really excited
about it.
Our community is on life support.
Everybody have a difference of
opinion, and it's all shared
in a respectful manner.
Everybody's educated.
You know, that's just a beautiful
thing to be around that I don't
encounter very often.
That's the impact. The impact
created what we're doing.
We Created the book club, and it's
creating so much more because this
is not just a book club, but we
are trying to put plan into action.
You know, you meet people here who
are serving other facets of the
community using their talents and
their skills to give back in other
ways.
Nipsey did that in his music.
And music has a way of bringing
people together.
Dance with the devil and test our faith I was thinkin' chess moves, but
it was God grace
And when you no longer have that,
how do you still give people that
sense of community and
encouragement?
And it's through learning together.
We are a community-based and
clout-free. So now people are
saying, 'Oh, I want to
do one too.' And I try to tell them, like, 'As long as your intentions
are pure, and you're community-centered, like, we'll help.'
At the end the day, he's a brilliant
mind. There's so many of them out
here. If they only had the proper
encouragement, or resources, or
environment, or something at schools
that would allow them to say, 'Hey,
I'm a brilliant mind, too. I can do
the same thing he did.' He
represents so much of our
generation.
Like a lot of our previous
generation, they have like their
icons, their Malcolms, Martins,
their Garveys.
But, like, we have somebody now
where he represents us.
And that's Nipsey.
That's everywhere.