Louisiana mogul and No Limit founder Master P is known as a powerhouse in hip-hop and is renowned as one of the first figures to make large amounts of money as a record executive. The label head (real name Percy Miller) has worked with the likes of Silkk the Shocker, Mystikal and Snoop Dogg. As such, he has a deep understanding of the record industry.
However, that said, he keeps his eyes on various artists and in an interview with HipHopDX, the rapper spoke about the late California emcee Nipsey Hussle and asserted that the love he received after his death was fake and insisted that some of the individuals who praised Hussle didn’t support him while he was alive.
While he was in the spotlight, Hussle (real name Ermias Asghedom) funded improvements to deprived neighbourhood schools, spent time with Los Angeles students to steer them away from crime and denounced gun violence in his music. Asghedom’s philanthropic efforts and businesses in Crenshaw helped the local economy. However, many disregarded this until he was gunned down outside of his flagship clothing store, Marathon.
Master P knew Asghedom personally and, in his sit-down interview, expressed that the culture didn’t receive his project, Victory Lap well before his early demise. Speaking on Asghedom’s posthumous success, Miller stated Victory Lap is “the same record that sold millions of copies [but] only sold 50,000 when he was alive!”
He continued to criticise those who only heard and praised the project after his death, stating, “I mean, it’s the same album. The same album that people love now. That’s the part that I don’t understand. Stop it with fake love.”
Miller, in the heated and passionate discussion, even attributed the lack of praise when Hussle was alive to jealousy, divulging, “I just think in our culture, it just natural that people just self-hate. They don’t want to see somebody else make it until they are gone. You don’t want to tell somebody they are great while they are alive. That’s the thing that I just couldn’t understand about Nipsey is that he was talented.”
Nipsey Hussle’s funeral was at the Staples Centre in LA, which seats 20,000 people. Victory Lap debuted at number four in 2018 and sold 53,000 units. However, following Hussle’s death on March 31st, 2019, the project re-entered the charts at number two and was certified double platinum by the RIAA. You can listen to the project below.