Nipsey Hussle - Essentials

R.I.P. Nipsey Hussle

If Nipsey Hussle knew nothing else, he knew how important his voice was. This wasn't so much his delivery (conversational, if occasionally raspy and impassioned) as what he had to say when he'd finally earned the spotlight he coveted as a prodigious Los Angeles rap talent. Slick and funky early singles like “The Life” featuring Snoop Dogg and “Feelin' Myself” with Lloyd suggested crossover potential, but the message of acclaimed mixtapes like Bullets Ain't Got No Name and The Marathon encouraged fiscal responsibility and warned of the futility of street life. He'd make history with 2013's Crenshaw mixtape, selling it at $100 a pop, but more importantly he'd grow his fanbase with sneering street anthems like “Checc Me Out” and “U See Us.” By the time he released 2018's Victory Lap, he was a rapper with very little to prove but, as the album would show, so much more to give-to music, and to his own community. Though he was taken from the world in 2019 at age 33, his legacy remains as he called it out on the Victory Lap standout, to “Hussle & Motivate.”