His sound was defined by a reverence to the West Coast gangsta rap of the 1990s but his flow was distinctly different from the more pop-adjacent hip-hop dominating the radio in the mid-2000s.
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In 2008, Hussle released the first two installments in his Bullets Ain't Got No Name series of mixtapes, which brought his music much more exposure. He signed to Cinematic Music Group and Epic Records. Nipsey independently released his first mixtape, Slauson Boy Volume 1, in December 2005 to moderate local success. He would later say the trip inspired him to become a community activist with an "entrepreneurial spirit". When he was 19, his father took him and his brother on a trip to Eritrea, for three months. So to make it out mentally stable and not in prison and not on drugs, that’s a win.” Nipsey would eventually get his stage name off a play on the name of comedian Nipsey Russell, which started as a nickname given to him by a childhood friend. Everybody got bullet wounds and felonies and strikes. He would later say,“In my section of the Crenshaw District in the Rollin’ 60s, none of my peers survived. However he would later work to separate himself from the gang and dedicate much of his career to gang prevention. At the age of 14, Hussle left home and joined the local Rollin 60's Neighborhood Crips, a sub-group of the larger Crips gang primarily based in his home neighborhood of Crenshaw. He was raised in the Crenshaw neighborhood of South Los Angeles with his brother Samuel and his sister Samantha and attended Alexander Hamilton High School, but dropped out before graduating. Nipsey was born Ermias Joseph Asghedom was born on August 15, 1985, in Crenshaw, Los Angeles, California, to Angelique Smith, an African-American woman, and Dawit Asghedom, an Eritrean immigrant.
Sadly, his life was tragically cut short at the young age of 33, but his work and impact in the hip hop world and beyond are still felt today. His passions extended beyond his music, which he explored with the establishment of his Marathon Clothing store in 2017 and his deduction to community activism. These led to the release of his critically acclaimed debut album Victory Lap in 2018. His fourteen year career led to him becoming one of the biggest influences in West Coast rap, gaining more and more recognition with the release of each of his mixtapes. Nipsey Hussle was an American rapper, activist, and entrepreneur.