Nipsey Hussle used the money he made from rapping to give back and invest in his hometown: 'Growing up as a kid, I was looking for somebody that cared'
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Callie Ahlgrim,Taiyler Simone Mitchell
Feb 23, 2023, 08:48 IST
Nipsey Hussle released his first and only studio album, "Victory Lap," in 2018.Earl Gibson III/Getty Images
Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed outside Marathon Clothing, a store he owned.
The Grammy-nominated rapper grew up in South LA and was known for investing in the community.
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Nipsey Hussle was known for giving back and working to revitalize his community.
The Marathon Clothing store was part of a strip mall that Hussle had planned to redevelop as a mixed-use property with a focus on low-income housing for locals, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Despite his rising fame, the rapper was disinterested in flaunting his income from the music industry, preferring charity work and investments over materialism.
"Growing up as a kid, I was looking for somebody — not to give me anything — but somebody that cared," he told the Los Angeles Times last year. "Someone that was creating the potential for change and that had an agenda outside of their own self interests."
"My scenario is being from the inner city of Los Angeles, being involved with gang culture, dealing with that and then dealing with the music industry as a first generation learning curve," he told Clash magazine after the album's release. "So it was something we had to learn through trial and error, and we figure it out."
"That's something I'm really proud and excited about," he continued. "I just want [listeners] to take a level of resilience from the narrative that Nipsey Hussle represents, and a level of 'if he can do it, I can do it.'"
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In addition to Marathon Clothing, Hussle had opened a fish market, a barbershop, a burger joint, and launched a combination co-working space and STEM center in the low-income Crenshaw district.
"In our culture, there's a narrative that says, 'Follow the athletes, follow the entertainers,'" he told the LA Times. "And that's cool but there should be something that says, 'Follow Elon Musk, follow [Mark] Zuckerberg.' I think that with me being influential as an artist and young and coming from the inner city, it makes sense for me to be one of the people that's waving that flag."
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"The man was instrumental in a lot of stuff," community activist Malik Spellman told the LA Times. "Fighting gentrification, trying to stop gang violence."
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In fact, just one day after he was killed, Hussle was scheduled to meet with LAPD Chief Michel Moore and Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff "to talk about ways he could help stop gang violence and help us help kids," the commissioner told the newspaper.
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Hussle is survived by two children and his longtime girlfriend, actress Lauren London.
"He's gotten more of a platform to be really clear about his message, because before he was just making rap gang-bang music," London said of Hussle in a joint interview with GQ in February, for which they were photographed in South LA. "But I think he has a purpose in all the raps, and that's coming to light."
London didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
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