The Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles was packed Thursday with thousands of mourners for the funeral of Nipsey Hussle, the Grammy-nominated rapper who was shot and killed in South Los Angeles, the same neighborhood where he grew up and was seen as a hero.
The memorial is billed as a “celebration of life” and began at 11 a.m. local time, an hour later than scheduled. The arena holds 21,000 people and was also the venue for Michael Jackson’s public memorial in 2009.
A procession will follow the two-hour memorial, snaking through Watts, Inglewood and South Los Angeles, passing by the Marathon Clothing store that Mr. Hussle owned and where he was killed last month.
Music filled the Staples Center as mourners from across the city came to honor the local hero.
LOS ANGELES — The service began with a live band playing “Right Hand 2 God,” one of Hussle’s songs. His voice boomed across the arena, and thousands of fans sprang to their feet to sing along, the bass from the speakers shaking the ground, giving the event the feel of a concert.
“This is a celebration. The marathon continues,” DJ Battlecat shouted over the loudspeaker.
The coffin, adorned with white and violet flowers, sat center stage. Three large photographs of Hussle were projected overhead on oversized television panels, rendered in hues of pink and blue. A thick wall of flowers, a piano and a harp on stage softened the atmosphere in the cavernous sports arena.
Before the service began, “Victory Lap,” the title track from Hussle’s Grammy-nominated album, played on loop as people sang along. The bound, glossy booklet handed out at the beginning of the service featured messages from Hussle’s family, hip-hop luminaries, public figures with ties to South Los Angeles and other prominent African Americans in the arts.
President Barack Obama sent a letter praising Hussle, which Karen Civil, a hip-hop media personality, read at the service. Mr. Obama said that he had heard Hussle’s music through his daughters.
“While most people look at the Crenshaw neighborhood where he grew up and see only gangs, bullets and despair, Nipsey saw potential,” the former president wrote. “He saw hope. He saw a community that even through its flaws taught him to always keep going.”
Many of the people in attendance are waving Eritrean flags in the air and yelling, “We miss you, Nipsey.” — JOSE A. DEL REAL and WALTER THOMPSON-HERNÁNDEZ
Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg are among those paying tribute.
Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg are among the big names on hand to pay tribute to Hussle on Thursday, according to a program distributed at the Staples Center. The service began with Hussle’s own song “Victory Lap,” the title track from his most recent album and major-label debut, as the processional, followed by scripture readings and a selection from Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”
The R&B singer Marsha Ambrosius, who sings on “Real Big,” the reflective closing song from “Victory Lap,” is scheduled to perform, as are the singers Anthony Hamilton and Jhene Aiko, a Los Angeles native. Family tributes from Hussle’s girlfriend, the actress Lauren London, and others, including Louis Farrakhan, the 85-year-old leader of the Nation of Islam, and the Los Angeles radio host Big Boy, are scheduled to follow.
Mr. Wonder is slated to perform his song “Rocket Love,” from the 1980 album “Hotter Than July.”
Also expected to participate in the ceremony: Hussle’s brother, Samiel; and the Los Angeles hip-hop fixtures YG and Mustard, who are serving as honorary pallbearers.
N.B.A. all-star James Harden of the Houston Rockets and DeMar DeRozan of the San Antonio Spurs also came to mourn Hussle. They wore white to honor their friend and fellow South Los Angeles native and entered with somber faces, not speaking to anyone. — JOE COSCARELLI
Crowds began lining up at the Staples Center hours before the service.
Before entering the Staples Center, many fans stopped to take pictures in front of a black armored truck that Hussle owned. His “all money in” truck was used for promotions and was a fixture outside his clothing store in Crenshaw, where he was killed. The truck, positioned in the middle of a closed-off street and surrounded by fencing and plainclothes security guards, was treated like a piece of public art.
Inside the arena, piano music played through the softly lit hallways, a stark change for a venue that usually hosts sports events and concerts.
“He was just a very humble man,” said Tanika Johnson, who works at a hair salon near Hussle’s store. Ms. Johnson said Hussle felt like a cousin to everyone in the neighborhood. “This is what I want you guys to understand: He grew up in a gang environment, where people don’t get out alive. But he came from a loving, caring family and he gave back to the community. He gave jobs to people in the community. What more could you want?”
Kathleen Gonzalez, 20, said what she remembers most about Hussle is how he treated everyone — “a homeless man, an average man, a man without papers who was here illegally.”
“He gave everyone the same praise he received,” added Ms. Gonzalez, a therapist who works with special needs children in South Los Angeles. “Nowadays it’s really rare to see that.”
Even as the city came together on Thursday to mourn Hussle, she said her community was on edge over the threat of more violence. She said there were rumors going around her neighborhood that there would be more shootings in retaliation for Hussle’s murder.
“Being from that part of the city, it’s something you keep in mind,” she said. “Nipsey wouldn’t want that.”
At one point before the memorial, security shut the doors to the arena, after some fans, apparently without tickets, rushed one of the entrances.
Some mourners came from far away. Ron Solomon flew in from Atlanta Wednesday night and went straight to Hussle’s shop in Crenshaw. “Everything he lived is what I believe in, too,” he said. “Uplifting his people. Not letting the system beat us.”
Alexis Short, 30, said she came out of respect for what Hussle represented in black culture.
“His music is motivational. And his interviews, his interviews, he would talk about eating well, taking care of yourself, giving back,” she said. “He was so inspirational. It just breaks my heart.”
Ms. Short, who is from Long Beach, said she first started following Hussle’s music in 2012 when she saw him at a small venue in Torrance, Calif. Wearing a jean jacket and sporting long colorful nails, Ms. Short, who was attending the service alone on Thursday, sat at a table inside the arena before the service started. She and others quietly flipped through a bound, glossy program featuring photos from Hussle’s life, from family beach trips to celebrations to red carpet events. — TIM ARANGO and JOSE A. DEL REAL
Los Angeles is mourning Nipsey Hussle. So am I.
I keep coming back to Nipsey Hussle’s vigil — the thousands of candles, flowers and handwritten notes. Every time I come back, I’m surrounded by a sea of black and brown faces and the sound of h is music, which has now become the unofficial soundtrack of the city. The City of Los Angeles is in mourning. Nipsey and I never met, but we had mutual friends, and it always seemed as if I knew him. Maybe it was because every time he spoke, I heard the city I grew up in: a community of black and brown people trying to combat daily bouts with hardship and loss with unyielding joy and love. — WALTER THOMPSON-HERNÁNDEZ
A student of 1990s gangster rap, Hussle once sold his own mixtapes.
Nipsey Hussle may have only released “Victory Lap,” his debut studio album with a major label, last year, but he was already a veteran West Coast rapper.
A student of 1990s Los Angeles gangster rap, from N.W.A. and Dr. Dre to Kurupt and Snoop Dogg, Hussle started in hip-hop as a teenager on the mixtape circuit, often selling CDs in his neighborhood from the trunk of a car. He first gained some national attention beginning in 2008, with the mixtape trilogy “Bullets Ain’t Got No Name,” and after an ill-fated deal with Epic Records, focused on releasing music independently through his own All Money In label.
Like many rappers at the time, Hussle mixed original songs, like the synth-driven G-funk anthem “Hussle in the House,” with verses over others’ popular beats of the moment. In a slight rasp and distinctly L.A. cadences, he told street-level stories of gang life and growing up in Crenshaw with a wisened edge.
Hussle was also an inspired marketer, and his entrepreneurial streak made headlines in 2013, when he sold limited-edition physical copies of his mixtape “Crenshaw” for $100, despite it being available as a free download online. Jay-Z bought 100 copies, and his company Roc Nation would go on to manage Hussle as he attempted to reach new commercial heights.
Though he never scored a Billboard smash or national radio hit, Hussle steadily released music through the 2010s, drawing interest from Atlantic Records. “Victory Lap” was released by the label, in partnership with All Money In, last year and featured appearances by YG, Puff Daddy and Kendrick Lamar. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard chart and received a nomination for best rap album at the Grammy Awards, where it lost to Cardi B’s “Invasion of Privacy.” (After his death, “Victory Lap” would return to the charts, reaching No. 2 this week thanks to a surge of interest on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.) — JOE COSCARELLI
Mourners from across the city are expected to honor the local hero.
The majority of mourners at the event are African-American and Latino, largely in their 20s and 30s. Many are wearing Nipsey Hussle memorial T-shirts or the famous “Crenshaw” shirts that were sold in Hussle’s clothing store. Members of the Eritrean community are wearing traditional clothing, some adorned with national flags.
The outpouring reflects the depth of admiration for Hussle, who incorporated his upbringing and experience as a gang member into his music, which spoke powerfully to many who live in Los Angeles’ poorest neighborhoods and well beyond. As his musical success propelled him in recent years, Hussle funneled investments to the South Los Angeles streets he had grown up on, earning devotion from fans, neighbors and local leaders.
The Marathon Clothing store that Hussle opened on Slauson Avenue in South Los Angeles was a potent symbol of black entrepreneurship. The store transformed into a makeshift memorial last month after Hussle was gunned down there over a “personal dispute,” according to the Los Angeles Police Department. — JENNIFER MEDINA
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/us/nipsey-hussle-funeral.html
2019-04-11 18:11:15Z
52780265652383
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar