SOUTH LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Rapper, community activist and entrepreneur, Nipsey Hussle was memorialized in front of more than 20,000 mourners at the Staples Center on Thursday. 

At the three-hour Celebration of Life event, there was a performance by Stevie Wonder, a speech from Snoop Dogg, and even a letter from President Barack Obama that was read to the crowd. 

Here is an excerpt of that letter:

“While most people look at the Crenshaw neighborhood where he grew up and only see, gangs, bullets and despair, he saw potential, he saw hope.” 

Community activists, family members, and faith leaders also paid their respects.

“His life was for the unity of the red and blue, to fly above the condition of the hood, above the condition of the world,” said Nation of Islam Leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan.

33-year-old Ermias Joseph Asghedom, grew up in the Crenshaw neighborhood of L.A., and through music he transformed his life from gang member to community activist.

He became a philanthropist and a business owner, re-investing his wealth into his neighborhood. And in the days after his death, the memorial outside his store where he was shot and killed keeps growing.

And now the South L.A. intersection where he grew up, where he had his store and where he was killed, will be renamed after him.