I am a bit late on the topic, but considering how many shock waves this incident sent through the hip hop community, I wanted to take some time and talk about the death of Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle. He was shot in the parking lot of Marathon Clothing, the store he owned, on March 31st. He was shot five times in the torso and once in the head, and was pronounced dead about half an hour later. In a world where it seems all the good ones go too early, this is another tragic example of someone who was so valuable to the world. The first thing I wanted to discuss is the few toxic people who are annoyed when an artist gets attention after they die. There are always those people, the ones who will say things like "You weren't a fan of [X artist] when they were alive!" or "Did you even listen to [X artist] before they were murdered?" However, that's just ignorance right there. For starters, people are allowed to expand their taste in music. Music conversations would be insignificant and boring if people could only discuss their absolute favorite artists. Even if a person would not have listened to Nipsey's music otherwise, it should be a good thing that they decide to support him and expand their taste. If a TV show becomes popular, are the only people allowed to watch it the ones who were fans of the show from the pilot? No; that wouldn't make sense. That's the great thing about the Internet and entertainment: it's easier than ever for people to get fully caught up on something they've never experienced before. Whether a music artist's discography, or that one TV show you've never watched but know you want to, people can and should experience different things. And those people, that seem to thankfully be the majority, that ask if you're "allowed to feel bad" about the incident. It is human nature to feel bad when a great person passes away tragically and at a relatively young age to boot (he was 33 years old). You don't have to be someone's biggest fan to show some empathy for the situation. Even looking past him, his family is effected, as well as the people he works with, his fans, his friends... showing your sympathy for Nipsey is showing sympathy for all those people. I don't want to live in a world where we somehow have to "earn" the right to show sympathy. Secondly, Nipsey was not just a rapper, and more people need to be made aware of this. People are griefing his loss, not just because of the music that so many love, but also what he has done outside of music. Growing up in Los Angeles, he experienced a lot of gang violence and was even involved with the Rollin' 60 Crips as a teen. He said, "None of my peers survived prison... Everybody got bullet wounds and felonies and strikes. So to make it out mentally stable and not in prison and not on drugs, that’s a win." And rather than simply tell about his experience in his music, Nipsey has done plenty of activism for better streets and beyond. He founded a STEM center under the name of Vector 90 for underprivileged youth, helped develop poor neighborhoods, denounced gun violence... he was doing as much as he could to ensure Los Angeles would be a better place. Someone who was given a pretty bad hand and was able to make this much out of it, how he's been able to transcend rap and turn into a respected figure just in general, half rapper and half activist... it isn't a crazy stretch to say he is the Tupac of this generation. While he does not have the cultural impact or popularity, both these people used rap as a platform, and didn't speak of empty promises. That's why the small bit of hate that exists for Nipsey is infuriating. Most of it comes from the LGBTQ community, which denounced some homophobic comments he made last year that had the general idea of gay black men not being "strong". That wasn't a good thing for him to say, but why is that the one thing they have to focus on? The LGBTQ community is this black hole of hatred, which is ironic, but I don't want to get too political here. The point is, if that is the one thing people choose to focus on, that's ignorance. This isn't like XXXTentacion, where there were multiple instances of scummy behavior. People love to pick and choose what they see, and it's disgusting that they would use their platform to hate on a dead man. If people disagree with what he said, that's fine. But don't belittle everything he's done. Let him rest in peace. Lastly, I wanted to touch upon his music. His debut album Victory Lap came out last year, although he did have some mixtapes before that. The aforementioned debut is the only project of his that I have heard so far. While I will save my thoughts on it for a future review, it was very authentic and had that West Coast sound to it of artists like The Game, Tupac, and Ice Cube. I can understand why it was nominated for a Grammy award. Well, that's about all I have on the issue. Sad that XXXTentacion and Mac Miller also passed away in the last 365 days. In the words of the Black Eyed Peas, "Where is the love?" Hopefully we can find it soon. Hopefully Nipsey gets to take as many victory laps in heaven as his heart desires.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2018
Categories |