Nipsey Hussle Shot Dead at 33
Nipsey Hussle has died after being shot multiple times while outside his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles, as NBC News and TMZ report. NBC reports that the rapper and community activist was pronounced dead after being transported to a hospital. Two other people were hospitalized as a result of the shooting. He was 33 years old.
Nipsey Hussle was born Ermias Davidson Asghedom in 1985. Raised in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles, Nipsey left his parents’ home at age 14, living with his grandmother and joining the Rollin’ 60s, a subset of the Crip gang. He began releasing music in 2005, putting out a series of mixtapes that earned him attention from other notable artists. He released a collaboration with Drake (“Killer”) in 2009 and appeared on Snoop Dogg’s Malice in Wonderland album the following year.
After a brief record deal with Cinematic Music Group/Epic proved unfruitful, Nipsey founded his own label, All Music In. He would continue with a streak of mixtapes and feature appearances throughout the next decade, working with artists including YG, Rick Ross, 9th Wonder, and many more. His 2013 mixtape Crenshaw made waves after he made a limited physical edition run available for $100 each.
In the past decade, Nipsey made a name for himself as an entrepreneur. He opened the Marathon Clothing “smart store” and a STEM education center called Vector 90, both in the Crenshaw district. He was widely known on the west coast and reached an even wider audience after featuring on YG’s “FDT (Fuck Donald Trump)” in 2016. While Nipsey’s debut album Victory Lap was announced in 2014, it wasn’t until 2018 that it was finally released. The album featured appearances by Kendrick Lamar, Diddy, The-Dream, and more, and netted the rapper a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album.
This article was published on Sunday, March 31 at 8:03 p.m. Eastern. It was last updated on Monday, April 1 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
