Nipsey Hussle

Ermias Joseph Asghedom — recorded at birth as Airmiess Joseph Asghedom and known to the world as Nipsey Hussle — was born on the fifteenth of August 1985 in Los Angeles, California. He was the son of Dawit Asghedom, an Eritrean who came to Los Angeles in the 1970s, and Angelique Smith, an African American of the Crenshaw District. Raised alongside his brother Samiel, later called Blacc Sam, and his sister Samantha, he grew up in the streets of South Central, where the pull of the Rollin 60s Crips and the promise of something greater ran side by side.

He built his name from the ground, self-releasing mixtapes through the 2000s and turning the Marathon into both a philosophy and a brand. His independent 2013 tape Crenshaw, sold for one hundred dollars a copy, announced an artist who would own his own worth. In 2018 his major-label debut Victory Lap reached number two on the Billboard 200 and earned a Grammy nomination; the following year his song "Racks in the Middle" won Best Rap Performance, honored after his death.

More than a rapper, he was an owner and organizer. In 2017 he opened the Marathon Clothing "smart store" at Slauson and Crenshaw, and co-founded Vector 90, a co-working hub and STEM incubator meant to open doors for the youth of his neighborhood. He bought back blocks he had once stood on, preaching ownership, patience, and the long run over the quick score.

On the thirty-first of March 2019 he was shot and killed outside his store, thirty-three years old. Tens of thousands filled the streets and the Staples Center to mourn him. The marathon continues — and so does the memory of the man who ran it for his people.