I wasn't a huge fan of Nipsey Hussles' music. To be honest I listened to Victory Lap on the urging of my wife and my mentee. I loved the message of the album, however I still wasn't like, "This dude is in my top 5." Less than a month ago, I went to his clothing store which is less than 10 minutes from my house. Walking in I was overjoyed to see a high end clothing store in 'the hood.' It was immediately obvious that the store owner had instilled the value of customer service and quality on everyone who worked in the store. We were immediately greeted, asked if we needed help and felt welcomed during our shopping experience. This to me spoke volumes about who Nipsey Hussle was as a person. The people he employed felt compelled to represent him in the best light possible. That is the same approach I will take in this blog about the 33 year old visionary who is gone too soon.
"In our culture, there's a narrative that says 'Follow the athletes, follow the entertainers, and that's cool, but there should be something that says follow Elon Musk, follow (Mark) Zuckerberg. I think with me being influential and young and coming from the inner city, it makes sense for me to be one of those people waving that flag." - Nipsey Hussle
(Nipsey Hussle opened Vector 90, a STEM Center and Co - Working space in his Crenshaw Neighborhood.)
When tragedies like this take place, I often find myself trying to look at how a person lived to fully appreciate what they mean to larger society. Nipsey Hussle's lived his life in a manner that we can all learn from. Growing up, I remember vivid conversations about "when I make it, I am going to give back to my hood." Seeing the work of LeBron James and the iPromise school and the philanthropic work of other celebrities my age, it is safe to say that this was the popular narrative of the 90's. I am willing to argue that no one has taken this narrative as far as Nipsey Hussle did.
Nipsey Hussle not only invested in real estate in his community, he opened businesses on top of the real estate he owned. The Marathon Clothing Store, where he was tragically murdered, was in the middle of two other businesses that he owned. Another clothing store that provided basic necessities like underwear and socks at very low prices and a barber shop that was named after his fallen friend. But Nipsey didn't stop there, he created Vector90 a co-working space for aspiring entrepreneurs on the top level of the building, with a state of the art STEM space for children on the bottom level. Needless to say that this entrepreneurial think space is located in the notorious Rolling 60's neighborhood. Nipsey was working tirelessly to change not only the narrative surrounding, but also the physical visual make up of the community he loved. Nipsey knew bringing businesses like this would help achieve that goal.
(The GQ Magazine pics of Nipsey Hussle and girlfriend Lauren London in his South Central LA neighborhood.)
Nipsey Hussle believed in the beauty of his community so much that when he was selected to be on the cover of GQ Magazine, he chose to do the shoot in his South Central LA neighborhood with his girlfriend Lauren London. Doing a photo shoot in his neighborhood was more to him about validating the pride he tried to instill in the youth he would go see at 59th Street Elementary. Where he donated money, repaved the outside play area and had local artist paint the outside basketball court with inspiring words to help uplift the children.
Proud 2 Pay
Nipsey Hussle was a visionary thinker, he believed in his talent and his message so strongly that he created his own lane to make sure his music would not be diluted. He developed a method he called Proud 2 Pay because as he puts it, "I was able to make music differently and approach art differently," he said. "I don't want to make songs that I don't like and that I'm not inspired by. I won't be on the radio with these types of records and that's fine if I can get $100 for CDs and sell ten times less and equal the same amount of profit. But I want to make music that I believe in and that I'm inspired by. And not music that I feel like has to make it past the radio gatekeeper or the label gatekeeper." This unique approach caught the attention of Jay Z who showed support for Hussle's creative thinking and bought 100 albums. The idea was simple, make my music free online for people to listen to, if you like it then you would show support and purchase the music at the $100 price tag. The genius plan worked. It is obvious why we don't hear much about the marketing strategy. Music industry execs can't control or make major profits off of him so, Hussle and his music thrived where he felt most comfortable among every day people who love music.
A major part of why Nipsey Hussle, was so committed to Proud2Pay was that the marketing strategy was the culmination of a journey he called, The Marathon. Hussle talked about not having the money to pay engineers to record his music but not giving up, simply saying to himself, "I can learn how to do this." Which he did and thus inspired his love for tech which led him to making The Marathon Clothing Store a "smart store" where shoppers can use an app to enhance your shopping experience. I was able to see this first hand as my mentee used it while we were in the store. I was thoroughly impressed.
Nipsey Hussle's children lost their father yesterday. Nipsey Hussle's parents lost their son yesterday. Nipsey Hussle's siblings lost their brother yesterday. Lauren London lost the love of her life yesterday. The Crenshaw Community lost one of their kings yesterday. A generation lost an Icon who was providing a blueprint yesterday. I lost a comrade yesterday... The world lost a vibrant young leader yesterday... So to honor him I will leave you with a quote from him describing why he feels obligated to giving back and the essence of why he believes sucks is a Marathon that he refused to give up on...
"I remember feeling, like, No. 1, what's the point and, No. 2, maybe I'm tripping. Maybe I'm not even supposed to be ambitious; maybe I'm not even supposed to be thinking this big and thinking outside the box; maybe I should just follow suit,” “That's a dangerous thing. I would like to prevent as many kids from feeling like that as possible. Because what follows is self-destructive." - Nipsey Hussle
Rest In Power Young King!!! The Marathon Continues!
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