Straight out of LA’s Crenshaw neighbourhood, the late Nipsey Hussle, along with artists like Kendrick Lamar and Tyler The Creator, was putting LA back on the hip hop map after years of trap domination by Atlanta. One of LA’s most respected rappers, the late Nipsey Hussle, was just reaping the rewards of his years of hard work. As well as being a respected musician, Hussle was hailed for his philanthropy and local activism efforts. While alive, the rapper funded improvements to deprived neighbourhood schools, spent time with Crenshaw students to steer them away from crime and made sure to denounce gun violence in his music.
With most people’s eyes and ears firmly on the South after the success of rappers such as Lil’ Wayne and Soulja Boy in the late ’00s, Nipsey Hussle, around 2011, was part of that Los Angeles renaissance that saw himself, Odd Future, and multiple other LA-based musicians finally step back in the limelight.
With hit songs such as ‘Racks In The Middle’, Hussle was and all too quickly taken away from us. While other artists, such as Earl Sweatshirt, Kendrick Lamar and Vince Staples, have gone on to prosper and become the new sound of LA, not one of these artists can fill the void Nipsey Hussle has left behind, especially on the philanthropy front.
Now with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it is acknowledged that Hussle was not just a rapper; he was an all-round entertainer and was acting as well as rapping. Venturing into other areas entertainment industry, in 2007, the Crenshaw rapper made his first acting appearance playing a supporting role in I Tried, a film about Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, in which he played Little Ricky. As the rapper ventured further into acting in 201, he landed a role in the movie Love Chronicles: Secrets Revealed, which had a starstudded line-up including actors such as Vivica A Fox and Mike Epps. However, Hussle’s biggest role would come in the form of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a romantic musical comedy-drama series in which Hussle starred as himself. The show was critically acclaimed and won many awards, including multiple Primetime Emmy awards, a Golden Globe award, and a Critics Choice award.
Hussle has received justice very recently, with 32-year-old Eric Holder Jr. finally found guilty and convicted of the rapper’s murder. Hussle was shot 10 times by Holder, and the bullets struck him in his head, torso, and back damaging his spine.
With so many different endeavours, ranging from music to film and owning his own shop in Crenshaw, it’s no wonder that Hussle is still missed in hip hop, but with that low-key filmography to his name, below, you can find see his favourite film which he revealed in an interview with XXL Magazine.
When asked what his favourite movie of all time was, the rapper readily responded, “Belly, Godfather 2... Scarface is dope, but it’s not my favourite movie. I’ll say Belly is my favourite urban film, Godfather 2 is my favourite movie in history. Belly was like a hustler’s ambition, where those young kids who saw it were like, yeah, if my house don’t look like that, if my car don’t look like that, and my clothes ain’t like that, and my jewellery and my bowl of weed ain’t on the table in the living room like that, I didn’t live up to my goal. [Laughs] And I know Belly‘s storyline was pretty wack, but just the whole visuals was real dope to me. That shit was like art. Like if you played that on a flat-screen TV in a big house, that looks like art.”
Below you can watch the recent unveiling of Nipsey Hussle’s star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
Nipsey Hussle’s favourite films:
- Belly
- Godfather 2
