Nipsey Hussle, the Los Angeles rapper who earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album earlier this year, was shot and killed in L.A. on Sunday, according to NBC. He was 33.
Hussle, whose real name is Ermias Asghedom, was one of three people shot outside of a clothing store he owned in L.A. on Sunday, NBC reports. Mike Lopez of the Los Angeles Police Department told NBC that the shooting occurred at approximately 3:20 p.m. in the 3400 block of Slauson Avenue. TMZ reports that one man fled the crime scene in a car. The other two victims are in serious condition, according to NBC.
As the news of Asghedom’s death spread online, stars took to social media to remember the rapper. “My whole energy is just at a low right now hearing this,” Drake wrote on Instagram. “… You were having the best run and I was so happy watching from distance fam nobody ever talks down on your name you were a real one to your people and to the rest of us. I’m only doing this here cause I want the world to know I saw you as a man of respect and a don.”
“This doesn’t make any sense!” Rihanna added on Twitter. “My spirit is shaken by this! Dear God may His spirit Rest In Peace and May You grant divine comfort to all his loved ones!”
Asghedom was born in 1985 and started releasing mixtapes in the mid-2000s. While many rap careers in the streaming era are based around viral hits and seemingly overnight success, Asghedom relied on a different model: He built a fanbase slowly but surely, and never sacrificed his connection with West Coast hip-hop in an attempt to reach a wide audience. “I was trying to make progress with every release,” the rapper told Rolling Stone earlier this year.
Asghedom was affiliated with Epic Records during the end of the 2000s, but a recent partnership with Atlantic Records proved more fruitful. Asghedom finally released his major-label debut album, fittingly titled Victory Lap, which reached Number Four on the Billboard 200. The LP went on to earn a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, putting Asghedom in the same category as million-sellers like Cardi B and Travis Scott.
“My producers, like Mike & Keys, have been on Grammy nominated albums prior to working on mine,” Asghedom told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “So when they would start that talk [about awards], I’d be like, ‘Chill out.’ That ain’t really what the spirit of the project was.”
“But,” he added, “people who love hip-hop, the art of storytellin’, the underdog, banging production, they gonna love this album.” And they did.
This story is developing