Redeem now - 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.
- Eric Holder was convicted of killing Hussle and sentenced to 60 years to life on Wednesday.
Nipsey Hussle was known for giving back and working to revitalize his community.
The rapper was shot and killed at age 33 while standing outside Marathon Clothing, a store in Los Angeles that he owned. Eric Holder was convicted of killing Hussle and sentenced to 60 years to life on Wednesday, but Hussle's legacy lives on.
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.
—Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) April 1, 2019"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."
Hussle was born Ermias Asghedom and raised in South LA, where he spent the majority of his time even after gaining fame and acclaim.
Hussle's debut studio album "Victory Lap," released in 2018, was nominated for best rap album at the Grammys this year.
"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.'"
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."
He was also known to buy shoes for elementary school students in Hyde Park, repave basketball courts, renovate playgrounds, provide jobs for the homeless, and fund funerals for local families and victims of gun violence.
"The man was instrumental in a lot of stuff," community activist Malik Spellman told the LA Times. "Fighting gentrification, trying to stop gang violence."
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.
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.
Read the LA Times' original reporting on Hussle's death here, and its 2018 interview with the rapper here.
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