LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Nipsey Hussle’s legacy may become a lot like that of history’s greatest artists, more popular in death than in life. Here, Rick Adams explores the impact of Nipsey’s record sales and how much they’ve changed since his tragic loss.
From the mixtapes he sold from the back of his car like Slauson Boy, which spawned his own record label, to the Bullets Ain’t Got No Name series, to deals with the majors and collaborations with Drake, Snoop and Problem, it seemed Nipsey Hussle's meteoric rise was unstoppable.
But 2010 saw his debut album fail to appear and his deal with Epic Records evaporate.
This though, was the catalyst to return to mixtapes and his own label and a new philosophy to own his own content completely, to be an entrepreneur with his label All Money In, crafting collaborative music.
The Marathon series, then the mixtape, Crenshaw, which were released, incredibly, for free download as a response to the creative stifling of the traditional music business, his championing of the free download revolutionized it.
In another entrepreneurial twist he sold physical CD copies of the album for $100 a piece. Jay Z bought 100 copies.
He channeled his frustration with traditional music labels into his first and only studio album, Victory Lap, released in early 2018. Later that same year it would be nominated for a Grammy.
Let's look at Nipsey Hussle by the numbers:
Victory Lap sold 53,000 units in the first week of it’s release taking it to number 4 in the billboard charts. After Nipsey’s untimely death it’s back again selling around 66,000 and rising.
Most impressively, it has a streaming count heading towards 62 million and up, jumping a massive 999 percent to place inside the top of the album charts, surpassing it’s original number 4 position with ease and reaching number one in the iTunes Hip Hop Charts.
And now four of his mixtapes are following suit. To put this into perspective, the day before his death, he’d had around two million streams of his album. Just a few days later, he had nearly 60 million more.
His career was not always noticed by white middle-class audiences. But in fairness, they weren’t his target or concern.
He was more focused on those who had affinity with his journey and how to help them, using his music as a guide, which explains why the size and response to his death has been such a shock to those only now learning about Nipsey’s life.
He leaves so many behind who loved him, but perhaps his death can be ground zero for a rebuild -- just like he did in life -- beckoning to those in tough situations to rise up and build from wherever they are, not just in spirit, but also in bricks and mortar and to give to those less fortunate around you, because a caring community is the answer to poverty.
If we all did this there would be very little to divide us.
Nipsey Hussle 1985-2019