Nipsey Hussle: What he gave, why we honor him

The following is based on a lecture by Marcus Bois Aubin at a PSL forum in New York on April 5th.

Hip hop is a cultural force rooted in the construction of the community. We must remember that one of the first mantras of hip-hop culture was "Peace, Unity and Fun". It is the hip-hop culture that has kept alive the names of liberation figures like Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and Huey P. Newton. Black American consciousness during the depth of the crack epidemic between the 1980s and the early 1990s. Many revolutionaries today began their political awareness journey by listening to rap music and in the early 1990s. discovering the fundamentals of hip hop culture.

We would like to honor and celebrate the life of the Errito-American artist, activist and entrepreneur Ermias Joseph Asghedom, told Nipsey Hussle, who was tragically shot dead on March 31 at the age of 33. to the community of Crenshaw and the south of Los Angeles where he was rooted, and to so many young Blacks and Maroons from all over the world.

Crenshaw and the South of Los Angeles in the 1990s

Born in 1985, Nipsey came to adulthood at a time and place – LA in the 90s – marked, like so many black neighborhoods, by extreme poverty, the incarceration of mass, deindustrialization, racial police brutality, overcrowded schools and declining social services. The climate and revolutionary organizations of the 1960s and 1970s had been largely destroyed. The drug epidemic was in full swing.

In this environment where playing according to the rules of the capitalist order seemed to offer no hope to a young man like Nipsey, he joined the Rollin 60s Neighborhood Crips. If we do not glorify these street organizations and do not minimize their crimes against the people, we do not disdain the oppressed young men and women who join them in such a social context. We understand that they are attracted by the community, the community, the sense of power and the economic livelihood they seem to offer.

The biggest gang: the Los Angeles Police Department

What we despise is the hypocritical condemnation of these young men of the ruling class, who call them "super-predators" and "monsters", who rob them of their humanity in the press, who design laws for them. deprive of their civil rights. and lock them up all their lives in a penitentiary system that does not intend to transform them, but locks them deeper into a criminal life. We know that the biggest murderers and drug traffickers are in the Pentagon and Wall Street banks, and we know that the biggest gang in Los Angeles does not have the names Bloods or Crips, but the four letters L-A-P-D.

Nipsey was such an important figure because of her individual transformation and her journey. Even years ago, before becoming a great artist, he talks about videos about colonialism, the stripping of the cultural work of the black community and the need to organize to fight the heavily armed state. and centralized. He drew on this long tradition of black independence and radical thought, before devoting himself to using his platform to bring about changes to the music industry and the community as a whole. independent artist.

Promotion of the class unit

Nipsey was a businessman who literally bought his block for community development. He has developed economic opportunities such as Vector 90, a collaborative workspace for Blacks and Latin Americans interested in STEM fields, to reduce the gap between Silicon Valley and South (formerly known as South Central). Nipsey's next venture would be to buy a building to make it 100% affordable, making it a step forward in the fight against homelessness in his community.

He used his fame and his past to multiply attempts to reduce street violence and animosity between long-standing street organizations. It was not simply a liberal wording of "stop to violence" but linked to an analysis that blacks had a common interest and a common enemy. The song "F-Donald Trump," published during the election period, is a musical example: recorded alongside YG, a Blood, as well as several Mexican rappers, promoting class unity and anti-war activism. white supremacy.

Nipsey was also evolving as an internationalist trying to bring economic opportunities back to his home country, Eritrea. Although he grew up with little relationship to his father, he was inspired by his desire to reconnect more with his African origins. His father organized and parade in the 1970s for the liberation of Eritrea against apartheid and US imperialism.

It is understandable that many people expressed their indignation and demoralization that his alleged killer belonged to his own gang gang. It is understandable that the pessimism caused by hood improvement exists when some people in these environments can take part in the assassination of emerging leaders trying to build these communities. But here at the Justice Center and the PSL, we believe in revolutionary optimism. I would like to share some lessons learned from Nipsey Hussle's legacy and explain why we must reject such pessimism.

The lessons of Hussle's legacy

A real change comes from the sincere love of the members of the community. It does not matter whether they are university graduates, reformed criminals, activists or in between. Anyone with a vision for a better future has the ability to contribute to the movement and become a spark for radical economic and political change.

Once a person knows who she is and where she comes from, it can become a spark for all kinds of individual and collective transformations. Nipsey's knowledge of his legacy has helped him break free from the self-destructive life of drug trafficking and gangbanging to develop programs to improve his community.

People who push for the liberation of their communities are not perfect and may harbor prejudices. Everyone living in this capitalist, white, patriarchal supremacist society has contradictions. This should not discredit the work they have done for their community. it does not cancel your inheritance. If you have harmed others, you should still be held responsible for your actions. If an oppressed person who wants to make a positive change and unite the poor has a fanatic point of view, the work of the movement is to explain and show concretely why these points of view hinder this unity; we know that the class struggle itself is the best teacher and can quickly undo, in a few days, several decades of bourgeois indoctrination.

Inter-community violence does not stop just because you are famous and you are trying to change the community. As long as there is systemic oppression and untreated trauma, there will be members of oppressed communities who will commit acts of violence and oppression against their own community. Hurting people will hurt people.

Nipsey Hussle's best-known brand was around the metaphor borrowed from his 2010 mixtape – The Marathon. I think it's appropriate to think of the revolution in the same way.

In an interview on the red carpet Grammy Awards last year, Nipsey was asked to complete the phrase "If I had a dream …", to which he replied "For our people to find its size collectively ".

May we continue to fight for his dream to come true.

Stay in Power Nip.