The rapper Kendrick Lamar called “a vessel from God”
Kendrick Lamar’s Christian faith is core to his life and work, and it was vitally important, too, when one of his friends and peers died far before his time. Faith helped Kendrick to make sense of it all.
After Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed in 2019, aged only 33, a wave of mourning followed, with fans, celebrities and major political figures including Barack Obama publicly offering their condolences to the fallen rapper. A memorial service was held in Los Angeles, where figures such as Jay-Z, The Game and YG all wrote heartfelt tributes to him.
Kendrick, who had previously toured alongside Nipsey and worked with him on the track ‘Dedication,’ also wrote a tribute, during which he reflected on their first meeting. They had both been supporting acts for The Game in 2009, and, as Kendrick noted, Nipsey had greeted him as “one of his own.” That meant a lot.
“Casually, I would go out to the crowd and listen to the substance he spewed on stage,” Kendrick wrote in his tribute, looking back on that Game tour. “Thinking to myself, this is the type of talent I want to be a part of.”
Kendrick was inspired by Nipsey, but it wasn’t just his presence on stage nor even his knack for poetry that most appealed. It was Nipsey’s “integrity as a person” that drew Kendrick in.
“I watched a young, ambitious black male orchestrate fellowship amongst the men around him on that tour,” Kendrick recalled. “Determined to execute one thing—and that was Greatness. Greatness in knowledge, greatness in wealth, and greatness in self.”
Kendrick was fascinated by Nipsey from that point on. “Was he a product of Crenshaw and Slauson?” he wrote, referring to an LA intersection upon which Nipsey came of age. “Was he a radical? Or was he a thinker? That mystique kept me engaged throughout his life and career.”
Kendrick continued to admire Nipsey for the rest of his life, coming to view him not only in terms of his earthly talents and perspectives, but also in religious terms. “Time surely revealed itself,” Kendrick wrote. “I realized Nipsey was all of those perspectives. But most importantly, he was a vessel from God.”
A product of Crenshaw and Slauson, a radical, a thinker, a vessel from God—Kendrick understood Nipsey Hussle to be all of them. “So thank you Nipsey the Radical,” he signed off his tribute to his late friend. “Nipsey the Thinker. Nipsey the Father. Nipsey the Brother. Nipsey the Husband. Nipsey the Friend. Nipsey the Great. And from now on, Nipsey the Messenger… Shalom.”