Jose A. Del Real, Joe Coscarelli and Niraj Chokshi

Some prayed and cried, while others left candles, flowers and signs to express their condolences for Hussle, born Ermias Joseph Asghedom, who had grown up in the Crenshaw area and stayed on to help his neighborhood even after becoming big enough to make it out. A steady flow of passing cars on Slauson Avenue blared tracks from his latest album.

Bela Vega, 28, a fan, fought back tears as she explained how Hussle, 33, gave hope to people who had also grown up around gang violence. His fans and neighbors clung to lyrics and interviews in which he advocated self-improvement; his financial investments in the community, she said, showed he was serious about creating a ladder for other people who grew up in similar circumstances. But now, his death, and the questions surrounding it, have reignited longstanding fears about violence and despair in the area.

“The story repeats over and over again and you just ask, ‘When does it stop?’” Vega said. “This is our community. But do I want my son to grow up over here? No. No.”

Two others were wounded in Sunday’s shooting and a suspect has yet to be identified, according to the police.

Hussle remained a regular presence at the strip mall that houses Marathon off Crenshaw Boulevard. Outside the store Monday, mourners shared stories about times they summoned up the courage to say hello to him and the smiles he flashed back.

“He meant everything to the community. This was all him,” said Lesly Marroquin, 26. “His music, he speaks real facts. He talks about how he grew up, he wanted people to see what he went through, to show people they could change. He was a role model.”

An autopsy found that Hussle died from gunshot wounds to the head and torso, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner determined. Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department noted Sunday night that in one week there had been 10 homicides and 26 shooting victims across Los Angeles.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/arts/music/nipsey-hussle-shot-dead.html" id="bd61f21d-7f96-3d1b-a6b1-0707b54d4f54">The New York Times</a>.

In Nipsey Hussle's Los Angeles Neighborhood, an Outpouring of Grief: 'He Meant Everything'

LOS ANGELES — It had become an inspiring symbol of success in South Los Angeles, but on Monday The Marathon Clothing store was transformed into a makeshift memorial for rapper Nipsey Hussle, the co-owner, who was fatally shot outside its doors, stunning fans across the city and the music world.

The area, comprising several predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods in South Los Angeles, is home to many working and middle-class families. Its streets are lined with single-family homes and low-rise apartment buildings, while its main boulevards and thoroughfares feature various strip-mall businesses and fast-food restaurants. The area has a troubled history with gang violence, something Hussle addressed in his music; crime has remained a significant concern, residents said Monday, even as citywide rates have fallen in recent decades.

An autopsy found that Hussle died from gunshot wounds to the head and torso, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner determined. Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department noted Sunday night that in one week there had been 10 homicides and 26 shooting victims across Los Angeles. “That’s 36 families left picking up the pieces,” he said on Twitter. Despite those numbers, the yearly total of homicides in the city of Los Angeles, which includes Crenshaw, has decreased steeply in the past 30 years, from a peak of 1,092 in 1992 to 259 in 2018.

Still, Hussle made improving South Los Angeles a priority. After his rap career took off, he diversified beyond the music industry, becoming a local businessman and philanthropist.

“From the beginning, Nipsey Hussle has been a critical part of #DestinationCrenshaw, even inspiring the name!” Marqueece Harris-Dawson, a city councilman who represents South Los Angeles, said on Instagram. Destination Crenshaw is a project devised to promote black cultural history in South Los Angeles.

Last year, Hussle, who taught himself how to build computers, helped launch a center in Crenshaw dedicated to connecting underrepresented groups with technology companies, according to an interview with The Los Angeles Times.

“Growing up as a kid, I was looking for somebody — not to give me anything — but somebody that cared,” he told the newspaper. “Someone that was creating the potential for change and that had an agenda outside of their own self interests.”

As a teenager, he dropped out of high school and became involved in street life and joined a gang, according to interviews, as he tried to start a rap career.

He began releasing music in the mid-2000s, and first made his name with the “Bullets Ain’t Got No Name” series of mixtapes, which established him as an inheritor of the storied lineage of Los Angeles gangster rap, carrying a torch lit by N.W.A, Snoop Dogg and DJ Quik. He was a muscular rapper who delivered direct, unromanticized lyrics about navigating the challenges of street life.

On singles like “Hussle in the House,” which had the trademark g-funk synthesizer whine and a reference to “Straight Outta Compton,” Hussle rapped authoritatively as a resident of Crenshaw and especially the notorious Slauson Avenue. “I’m from where homicide boost the economy,” he delivered matter-of-factly. “I came from nothing/so did every other rapper/save the speculation/real banger, gun clapper.”

Slender and a little grizzled, with slick braids and a grown-out beard, he identified as a member of the Rollin 60’s Crips gang, which he chalked up to history, circumstance and survival. “I’m not promoting it. I’m just speaking on it,” he said in a 2010 interview with Complex magazine.

“I feel like I’m an ambassador,” the rapper added. “I’m more focused on giving solutions and inspiration more than anything.”

He had plans to meet Monday afternoon with representatives from Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and officials from the Los Angeles Police Department to talk about preventing gang violence, according to Steve Soboroff, the Los Angeles police commissioner.

As his music career careened forward, Hussle largely stayed the independent route, releasing most of his projects through the All Money In label that he founded in 2010. But his entrepreneurial streak often earned more attention than his songs, namely the marketing coup tied to his 2013 mixtape “Crenshaw,” in which he sold 1,000 copies for $100 each (including 100 copies to Jay-Z, who respected the hustle).

The move came as digital piracy and free music online had all but sapped CDs of value, leading Hussle to launch his #Proud2Pay movement. “It ISN’T the price of the plastic case and polyurethane disc,” he said at the time, “it’s the price of Revolution! The price of Rebellion against an industry that has tricked us all into making products that have no soul for fear of not being heard if we don’t.”

It wasn’t until last year that he released his proper debut studio album, “Victory Lap,” via Atlantic Records (in partnership with All Money In); the LP debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart and was nominated for best rap album at the Grammys, losing to Cardi B’s “Invasion of Privacy.”

He collaborated with a wide array of rappers, including Drake, The Game, Snoop Dogg, Childish Gambino, Rick Ross and YG. He was an occasional actor, and had a memorable performance as a rapper having a feminist awakening on the CW sitcom “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”

Hussle also guest-starred on YG’s anti-Trump hip-hop anthem “FDT,” rapping: “I’m from a place where you prolly can’t go/speakin’ for some people that you prolly ain’t know/it’s pressure built up and it’s prolly gonna blow.”

At the same time as he released “Victory Lap,” which featured Puff Daddy and Kendrick Lamar, Hussle helped open a 4,700-square-foot co-working space in Crenshaw called Vector 90, dedicated to increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“In our culture, there’s a narrative that says, ‘Follow the athletes, follow the entertainers,’” he told The Los Angeles Times last year. “And that’s cool but there should be something that says, ‘Follow Elon Musk, follow 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.”

He added: “I just want to give back in an effective way.”

His death drew condolences from across the music industry and beyond, with everyone from Drake and Rihanna to Steph Curry and Russell Westbrook recognizing the stamp he left on his city.

“It’s dangerous to be an MC,” Nas wrote on Instagram. “It’s dangerous to have money. Dangerous To Be A Black Man... Nipsey is a True voice. He will never be silenced.”

Hussle was in a relationship with the actress and model Lauren London, with whom he had a son, Kross. He also had a daughter, Emani, from a previous relationship.

Outside the Marathon store Monday, Marcus Adams, 24, said the rapper “was an inspiration” for him as a young black man who grew up in South Los Angeles. Adams, who is studying business administration at West Los Angeles College, said Hussle’s music reflected his own experience, trying to avoid the pitfalls of growing up in an impoverished community.

“I came because I just felt I owed it to him. It’s a job to come here and show my condolences,” he said.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/arts/music/nipsey-hussle-shot-dead.html" id="4fd00106-db89-4e4e-9be8-d90de5c43376">The New York Times</a>.

In Nipsey Hussle's Los Angeles neighborhood, an outpouring of grief: 'He meant everything'

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Jose A. Del Real, Joe Coscarelli and Niraj Chokshi

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In Nipsey Hussle's Los Angeles Neighborhood, an Outpouring of Grief: 'He Meant Everything'

In Nipsey Hussle's Los Angeles neighborhood, an outpouring of grief: 'He meant everything'