A friend had given him a book called The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing, packed with Procter & Gamble case studies. When the video ended up on MTV, scores of people started asking about “Crenshaw Clothing.” Nipsey had other ideas. Nipsey ordered a batch of throwback blue-and-yellow shirts with “Crenshaw” scripted across the front to wear in the shoot. Leafing through an old yearbook, he noticed a picture of local legend Darryl Strawberry in a vintage Crenshaw High School baseball jersey. "Now it's rap money, no advance, it's all royalties." Nipsey also prophetically flicked at his future Opportunity Zone gambit: "Pay taxes to these corners and put in work, it's a policy."įor his first music video, he wanted to do something that both represented his hometown and offered a path to earnings beyond music. ![]() "Straight off the block, I sold dope to buy groceries," he rapped. Nipsey started putting out mixtapes in 2005 on one of his early songs, Hussle In The House, he made sure to include a few financial lessons of his own. Watching Dre from up close and moguls like Jay-Z and Diddy from afar gave Nipsey "the blueprint of what could be done with the platform of being a successful rap artist," he says. Dre, from nearby Compton, built Death Row Records into one of the most influential labels in hip-hop history before eventually shifting focus to his namesake headphone line. Fortunately, his musical role models were entrepreneurs as well, offering a way out of a dead-end path.ĭr. He grew up down the road from the plaza, in what he calls “the worst house on the best block,” cutting grass and shining shoes to make extra cash as a kid before falling in with local gangs. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation) Gettyįor Nipsey, the hustle started at home. Hussle's Convention: Diddy, Usher, Jay-Z, DJ Khaled and Nipsey Hussle at the Roc Nation Grammy. “The most important thing is his ability to just see where future trends are going and not being afraid to pioneer.” ![]() “ was not trying to be independent just for the sake of it, but thinking about the benefits of being an independent artist,” says Chris Lyons, who has known Nipsey for several years and runs Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund, which counts Nas and Diddy as investors. He released just 100 copies of a subsequent offering, Mailbox Money, with a price tag of $1,000. His slow-burn career started to catch fire six years ago when Nipsey offered 1,000 copies of his mixtape Crenshaw for $100 apiece-Jay-Z bought 100 copies-and rolled the profits into his label, All Money In. Nipsey may not be hip-hop's biggest name, but he’s certainly among the genre's most entrepreneurial. ![]() The plaza will be among the first to benefit: There's a brand-new train station under construction just steps away. In the meantime, a light rail line is rising to link Crenshaw -which, crucially, qualifies as a tax-advantaged Opportunity Zone -to Los Angeles International Airport and other key nodes of sprawling Southern California.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |