Rising Star Nipsey Hussle Shot, Killed In Front Of His L.A. Clothing Store

(Photo by MTV/TRL/Getty Images) – Nipsey Hussle
Nipsey Hustle performs at MTV TRL at MTV Studios on February 20, 2018 in New York City.

Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed Sunday afternoon (March 31) in a shooting outside his store in the Hyde Park section of Los Angeles. He was 33.

He was shot multiple times and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to the Los Angeles Times. Two others were wounded in the shooting.

Police were reported to be canvassing neighborhoods searching for a suspect who fled on foot. In the meantime, hundreds of fans and celebrities gathered outside his Marathon Clothing store to mourn and play his music.

Hussle was nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy award for his 2018 debut Victory Lap. While he’s described as an emerging artist, he’d been performing since at least 2009 according to Pollstar records, opening shows for The Game and Snoop Dogg as well as appearing on festival lineups.

But he broke out in a big way in 2018, headlining larger venues like the Warfield in San Francisco and Irving Plaza in New York City, as well as making appearances at marquee festivals including Rolling Loud, BET Experience, Broccoli City and several radio shows.

Hussle made no secret of early gang affiliations, and it’s unclear if the shooting is gang-related. His final tweet, posted just hours before the shooting, said, “Having strong enemies is a blessing.”

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Having strong enemies is a blessing.</p>&mdash; THA GREAT (@NipseyHussle) <a href=”https://twitter.com/NipseyHussle/status/1112472675169886208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>March 31, 2019</a></blockquote>

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His work as a community organizer in recent years stands in contradiction to his gang member past, however.

According to the Times, he was involved the Destination Crenshaw arts project and had opened a co-working spaced called Vector 90, also in L.A.’s Crenshaw district, to call attention to the lack of diversity in science, tech, engineering and mathematics fields.

In a 2018 interview with the Times, Hussle explained that “In our culture, there’s a narrative that says, ‘Follow the athletes, follow the entertainers,’ 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.”

As news spread of Hussle’s death, many of his colleagues and admirers took to Twitter to express shock at the killing

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>This doesn’t make any sense! My spirit is shaken by this! Dear God may His spirit Rest In Peace and May You grant divine comfort to all his loved ones! <br>I’m so sorry this happened to you <a href=”https://twitter.com/NipseyHussle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@nipseyhussle</a> <a href=”https://t.co/rKZ2agxm2a”>pic.twitter.com/rKZ2agxm2a</a></p>&mdash; Rihanna (@rihanna) <a href=”https://twitter.com/rihanna/status/1112517003053621249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 1, 2019</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>RIP NIPSEY HUSSLE</p>&mdash; J. Cole (@JColeNC) <a href=”https://twitter.com/JColeNC/status/1112536022909419520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 1, 2019</a></blockquote>

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