Nipsey Hussle

Just 10 days after Ermias "Nipsey Hussle" Asghdeom was shot and killed in 2019, the Los Angeles intersection of West Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard was renamed in his honour, a fitting commemoration for the late rapper who invested—emotionally and financially—in his area. After the triumph of his now-hauntingly titled studio debut, 2018’s Victory Lap, Hussle didn’t leave for the safe confines of Calabasas. Instead, he started a coworking space in Crenshaw’s commercial district, alongside his store, Marathon Clothing. Hussle wasn’t new to business: He approached his neo-G-funk rap with industry savvy, too, dominating L.A.’s mixtape circuit by selling his in-demand 2013 tape, Crenshaw, for $100 apiece long before artists like Mach-Hommy and Westside Gunn sold their art at such prices. It also helped that JAY Z bought 100 copies himself. On “Dedication”, which finds both Hussle and Kendrick Lamar aggressively touting their L.A. bona fides over rumbling synths, Hussle rapped, “Royalties, publishing, plus I own masters/I'll be damned if I slave for some white crackers.” Nipsey Hussle had a plan for his post-Victory Lap career, one that would reinvent the relationship between a musician and his community. “It’s been a helluva wait. I want to really deliver music,” he explained to Apple Music in February of 2018. “I want the story to be music for the next five, six years.” While this vision was stolen from him far too early, his dreams of a revitalised Crenshaw live on—the marathon continues.