Nipsey hussle double up behind the scenes
Police said the men actually had several conversations outside of the store that day, but Holder turned violent, confronting the rapper with a gun in each hand. Image: People mourn the shooting death of musician Nipsey Hussle outside of The Marathon Clothing store on Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles (Patrick T. The men shook hands and their conversation turned to the topic of snitching, witnesses said, according to court documents. Prosecutors told a grand jury last May that Holder introduced himself to Hussle as the rapper was signing autographs outside of his clothing store and talking with fans. He pleaded not guilty and remains held on $6.5 million bail awaiting trial. He was charged with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. Two days later, police announced the arrest of a suspect, Eric Ronald Holder Jr., a 30-year-old aspiring rapper and suspected gang member. Two others - an acquaintance and the man's nephew - were also wounded. On the day he died, Hussle was shot 10 times with rounds piercing his lungs and severing his spinal cord. "You get close to feeling like you're going to throw away your freedom, your life, your opportunity," he said in the interview. In a 2018 interview with a Dallas radio station, Hussle described experiencing several "wake-up calls" that inspired him to become an entrepreneur and leave behind street life. With his rise in the hip-hop scene, he bought the property in 2017 and also opened a co-working space, Vector 90, nearby in his native Crenshaw neighborhood. Hussle, whose stage name was a play off of comedian Nipsey Russell, sold CDs out of his car as a fledgling rapper in that strip mall. On March 31 of last year, Hussle, 33, was gunned down outside his South Los Angeles store, Marathon Clothing, which was inside a strip mall that served as a gathering place for the gang. "He's still just the best dude." The rise of HussleĪs an activist, Hussle, born Ermias Joseph Asghedom, spoke openly about his past membership with the Rollin' 60s, a Crips street gang that formed in Los Angeles in 1976. "That was Nipsey," longtime friend Anthony Fagan said. Rival gangs like the Rollin' 40s and the Rollin' 60s came together for so-called peace talks in the weeks following Hussle's shooting. After the 2019 shooting death of Grammy-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle, who advocated for unity despite his own affiliation with the Rollin' 60s Crips, appetite grew for putting aside old vendettas.Īs Los Angeles mourned Hussle's death, gang intervention experts seized the opportunity to use his reputation as a peacemaker to build bridges between warring factions. "They were the last piece of the puzzle," Townsend said.īringing together rival gangs in one room would have been unimaginable a few years ago.