OPEN LETTER: NIPSEY HUSSLE || LONG LIVE THE KING
We weren’t fully sure how to start this open letter, but we felt like being completely honest right off the bat would be something someone like Nipsey would want us to be.
Instead of focusing on eye catching phrases or going out of our way just to explain why we’re even writing this, let’s just start and speak from the heart.
This isn’t for attention, this isn’t for us, this isn’t for you…it’s for him. A letter of appreciation to him, Nipsey Hussle, businessman, family man, recording artist and mover. He shook the ground independently. He carved a new lane out in the rap game and stood on his own, independently…. and for us, he was the last artist that could make us actually feel something when he either spoke or rapped. He truly spoke to the masses through his music, especially to those who have been striving for excellence, ownership and independence.
As we drove home this morning, bumping the last official released single to date from Nipsey (Racks in the Middle), we thought deeply about where we were exactly one year ago from today when the news first hit that he had been taken away from us. The world shook. We couldn’t believe it. We refused to believe it so much that we anticipated new stories releasing and stating that hopefully the initial report of him being murdered was false, and that Nip was fine….but this wasn’t the case at all. We thought about Lauren as well and how she was going to feel about all of this (Actress, Nipsey’s wife).
Ironically, we were working on a new song, sitting at our computer desk with a led pencil and a notebook, writing and preparing to release a new single for that same week. We grabbed our phone, opened our emails, and within 4 seconds, our lives changed. Tears immediately poured down our face and the writing stopped. Not just for that moment, but for the entire year. To know that someone so needed could be taken away from us in such a vicious way caused disbelief. We lost faith in the art.
From that moment, we lacked inspiration. We mourned his passing by not creating. A depression not only over our personal creative processes, but over the rap music genre as well spread like a wildfire.
Unfortunately, Nip hasn’t been the only rapper to die in the past year. It had us thinking, what are we as artists and a community doing wrong here? Is there some sort of pattern? How can these types of things still happen to us when we’ve done everything in our power to get away from problems or possibilities just like these. Famous people are not exempt from freak accidents (Kobe), or murder (Pop Smoke) and that’s a scary thought for some to even digest. At times, some might think that those in the limelight are also equipped with immortality or invincibility, but when the gods call upon you, it’s truly your time to go, regardless of who you are/what you have done here on this earth.
We lost the ability to write anything new, but as we continued to listen to his music in his absence, it was clear that Nip would want us to keep pushing, keep going and to take everything he taught us through his music and to use it.
ERMIAS ASGHEDOM, Known Professionally as NIPSEY HUSSLE
AUGUST 15, 1985 - MARCH 31, 2019
REST IN PARADISE
A year can go by so fast, and it seems just like yesterday that he was here with us. Nipsey was about to scratch a new surface with his new music, starting with “Racks in the Middle”. The Grammy’s honored him in his passing and he won 2 awards posthumously, so it was clear that he was about to achieve a new form of success and would lead the charge in rap music/business. We’ve decided to honor him in our own special way by just expressing how much we miss him and continue to listen and feel his music as if he were still here.
Him being so prolific will be the reason why we will never forget such a soul like his, and he will truly live on through us and his music and be truly missed….
We create because of him, and will continue to do so.
Long Live The King