Nipsey Hussle is a known American rapper who rose to fame in Los Angeles, California and is famous for his collaborations with famous artists such as Drake, Trey Songz and Slim Thug. His name is often written as Nipsey Hu$$le.

Early years

He was born as Ermias Asghedomon on August 15, 1985, in South Los Angeles in the United States.

His father was from Eritrea, and his mother is of African American descent. That explains his not so common first name.

He lived in a low-income family, so he became resourceful at a very young age. He was never interested in school or in getting a good education.

He was only interested in making rhymes and hanging out with his friends. Just as his friends, he admired rappers for their fame and wealth and he wished that he could be just like them.

As most of the kids from that suburb, he was a member of a street gang. His gang was called “Rollin 60’s Neighbourhood Crips”. The Crips are a known street gang, and at one period they were the largest criminal street gang in Los Angeles.

At the age of 15, he was already expelled from school and eventually ended up in a boot camp.

Afterward, he took some classes at the community college in his town. He wanted to fill the holes in his education since he never finished high school.

Career development

He has spent a lot of time rapping with other wanna-be rappers after which he decided that he wanted to make his first mixtape.

He was 20 years old when he released his first mixtape called “Slauson Boy Volume 1”. The mixtape brought him the interest of underground hip-hop society and was very listened to his part of LA.

Three years later he released two new mixtapes: “Bullets Ain’t Got No Name Vol. 1” and “Bullets… Vol. 2”. These two mixtapes brought wider attention to him and his lyrics.

He became known as a good songwriter, and other rappers from his hometown started asking him for lyrics.

In 2007, Bone Thugs – N – Harmony filmed an autobiographical film called “I tried” where Nipsey gained a small role. The film was directed by Rich New, an LA TV director.

He also had a role in the movie called “Caged Animal” from 2010, directed by Ryan Combs.

He acted in an episode of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” a romantic musical TV series on the CW Network. Nipsey always liked acting and never turned down any offers regarding work in front of the camera.

In 2009 his first single “Hussle in the House” made his entry into the top of the hip-hop world and it was very well received.

He released his third mixtape “Bullets Ain’t Got No Name, Vol. 3”. Since he was at that time already a respected rapper, he collaborated with Drake on his song “Killer” and Snoop Dogg’s “Upside Down.” The two of them were already highly respected rappers, and these collaborations brought Nipsey good publicity.

In 2010 he was amongst a group of music artists who appeared in “We are the World 25 for Haiti” song.

This song was made after the big Haiti earthquake in 2009, which caused devastation of a large area of the island and killed thousands of people. The song is a remake of “We Are the World” song from 1985.

Nipsey was also chosen to appear on the cover of XXL Magazine, in the “Annual Freshman Top Ten” which meant that he was already recognized as a talented artist.

He announced the release of his new mixtape in 2010 and even made a single “Feeling Myself” before the release of this album.

However, he had a dispute with his record label called “Epic Records,” and he was released from his contract at the end of the same year. Epic Records is one of the oldest record labels in USA, established in 1953, and has a contract with  big number of stars.

He decided to start his record label, so he founded a company called “All Money In.” He wanted to be independent and never to be in the position where he was during his feud with Epic Records.

In 2010, he released his first mixtape done by his label, and it was called “The Marathon.” He had guest appearances of Kokone and MGMT at that song.

In his next mixtape, he featured Don Kennedy and YG who are both Los Angeles rappers just as he is. The single was released in 2011 under the name “The Marathon Continues”.

During that period he continuously announced his new album but the album came out years later. In the meantime, he only made mixtapes and built his reputation.

He was a guest on YG’s single called “Bitches Ain’t Shit” from 2012, along with Tyga. The song was a huge success, and it made Nipsy known outside the state.

He was invited to perform at “Paid Dues”  festival in 2013, which was the last time the festival took place.

His 8th official mixtape was called “Crenshaw,” and it was released in 2013. It was available for digital downloading from websites and it was downoloaded in thousands.

Nipsey released again “X-Tra Loops” in 2013, which was a mixtape that included some of his older hits.

Crenshaw, his mixtape which was hosted by an American DJ Tyree Simmons known as DJ Drama, was produced by many different producers: The duo Futuristiks, 9th Wonder, Ralo; Mike Free and even more.

His Greatest Hits album came at the end of 2013. This was also one of his most sold albums since it contained all of his hits made until then.

He started selling his albums for $100, earning huge income by this decision. During this period a lot of rappers gave their tapes free on digital download, but Nipsey had a different approach, wanting to be recognized as a “different player.”

Jay-Z was amongst the buyers of his $100 album “Crenshaw,” he bought 100 copies of this album. The fact that Jay-Z bought so many copies didn’t just prove that Nipsey was a great hip hop artist but it gave push to selling the album – even more people wanted to buy the album after they heard that Jay-Z bought so many copies.

He released another mixtape called “Famous Lies and Unpopular Truth” which included a song against Donald Trump called FDT: Fuck Donald Trump. It was made in collaboration with YG.

In 2014 he released a mixtape called “Mailbox Money.”

He released it in the same way as “Crenshaw” – it was $100 a piece. This again brought controversy on Nipsey, but it was a good marketing trick: everybody talked about it, so the tapes eventually got sold.

He went into business with three partners and opened “The Marathon Agency.”

In February 2018, his long-awaited debut album “Victory Lap” came to the stores.

The single which formatted the album was made in collaboration with Kendrick Lamar.

Victory Lap was released by his “All Money In” label but with a huge help of Atlantic Records.

The album had great expectations since it waited for six years. The critics gave their thumbs up on most of the songs but concluded that it wasn’t his best work.

Personal life

He was in a relationship with Lauren Nicole London, an American actress and a model and they have a son named Kross Adhgedom they both adore.

Lauren Nicole is a beautiful actress and a model, known for her roles in TV series “90210” and “Entourage”.

Both Nipsy and Loren have children from their former relationships.

Nipsey has a daughter named Emani with his former girlfriend Tanisha. London has a  son Cameron Lennox Carter to whom she gave birth while she was in a relationship with another known rapper called Lil Wayne.

London and Nipsey separated at the end of 2017. He announced it on his Twitter account. They remained friends and will share custody over their beautiful son.

Rumours are that they separated because of his ex-girlfriend Tanisha who claimed that she was seeing Nipsey all through London’s relationship with Nipsey. It wasn’t new that Tanisha commented her relationship with Nipsey and claimed that the relationship was never finished in the first place.

He posted an Instagram post after what he was condemned by the public for expressing homophobic attitudes.

His greatest role models from his youth were Snoop Dog and Ice – T, along with other old school rappers.

He currently lives in an apartment in Los Angeles and owns a Mercedes SLS AMG.

In 2015, he was pulled by the police for a simple traffic check up and they foubottle of codeine in the vehicle. He was pulled because his car missed licence plates because he has a suspendes license.

Sizzup is a known cocktail where codein is mixed with ice and soda.

He had a misdemeanor in 2017 when he was arrested in his hometown because of obstructing a police offer.

Quick summary

Full name: Ermias Asghedomon

Date of birth: August 15, 1985

Birthplace: Los Angeles, United States

Age: 33

Profession: rapper, songwriter

Height: 191 cm

Weight: NA

Net Worth: $4 million