Landon Buford
Recently the city of Miami hosted its leg of the music festival Rolling Loud after an almost two-year hiatus due to Covid. They paid homage to Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, XXXTentacion, Lil Peep, and JuiceWRLD. All of whom had passed away over the last couple of years.
According to Tony M. Centeno, a mural featuring late stars is seen just off the entrance to the Hard Rock Stadium. The colorful sketch shows beautifully designed portraits of Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, Lil Peep, XXXTentacion, and, last but not least, JuiceWRLD.
Speaking of Nipsey, his project Victory Lap hit a Billboard milestone earlier this month, as it has spent on the Billboard 200, per chart data. The project also earned a Grammy nod in 2019.
“I just think the amount of life, the amount of narrative, the amount of truth, the amount of pieces of somebody’s life stories that went into Victory Lap is one of the reasons why my album is the best rap album of 2018,” he told Carl Lamarre. “I just wanted to do something timeless and that years from now, you’d enjoy it and say, ‘That was classic hip-hop right there. That’s what our genre sounds like [at its best].’”
Lamarre like many others had the opportunity to interview the late great rapper. Shay Diddy at 106.1 KMEL also had the opportunity to interview Nipsey a couple of years ago, and she has recently shared what it was like be in the same with room with the ‘Victory Lap’ artist.
“So, I met Nipsey twice and I got the chance to interview him for that intensive interview one time. But, for the last interview, I say this, Nipsey is consistent. What you see is what you get. There are some people when that mic turns on they act one way, and when it’s off they are a completely different way,” said Shay.
“But, people like Nipsey are my favorite people to interview because I know what I’m getting and I know there’s not going to be any BS. All I got from Nipsey was positive vibes. I’ll never forget we were backstage just choppin it up and I don’t remember what we were talking about. It was probably politics are something and he just turned and said ‘You are going to be a star you got it. Like you got it, you are doing your thing. You just keep doing you.”
She added, “How are you getting that and seeing that from a 20 minute conversation, but I appreciated it because not a lot of artists will take the time and say you are doing your thing. I will say it was always positive energy and try to uplift people… He was ahead of his time with what he was doing.”
Recently, NBA Champion with the Los Angeles Lakers, Markieff Morris explained how Nipsey inspired him.
“He inspires me coming from where I’m coming from, there’s not too many ways to make it out,” Morris said shortly after the two-year anniversary of Nipsey Hussle’s death on March 31. “The stuff he was doing for his community was different because his education was on another level. He knew the in and out of building a community and none of us really know that, so he inspired us just to show us how to build a community up.”
