Nipsey Hussle Talks New Album, West Side Protocols, Cardi B, Diddy + More

what I mean, make sure I have everything I need in Los Angeles, I can take you from the airport, bro, you could take my car, you could come to my store. Could you meet my friends? You could get numbers if you have any problems or whatever, just call or want to know where to go to eat. That's not because you had to, it's because it's respectful. Yeah we just beef up the numbers and we're just from a place you know about dedication you say you want real reparations what's your idea of ​​real reparations come on man you know what I'm saying like we're left out even like Angela was saying before on cryptocurrencies and technology, we have to be underrepresented. in tech I just opened a co-working space in my neighborhood called vector90 um and when we did our grand opening, Don Peebles, who is a billionaire real estate investor, came and he's on the board with us and you know, he spoke and You know my partner David Gross, whose original idea was to put data on wealth inequality on the wall as the aesthetic of the building and you look at Facebook, you look at Google, you look at all these billions of dollars. tech companies and look at the demographics, it was like a bar graph, white, Asian, you know, black, it was like less than the highest I've ever seen, I think it was Facebook with like nine percent of black people working in that count how many of us have Facebook all of us how many how many artists who got hundreds of millions of followers are black and you know they leverage their value from the number of people and eyeballs so that's what I mean when I say right now at this moment , you know what I mean, that's what that term would be, like if we want access, you know, I mean we should be included and not just that no one should let us do it.

It shouldn't be affirmative action, we should educate ourselves and actively pursue, yeah you know what I'm saying and also be aggressive in saying brother, don't play me with you with the way you position your business model, we are aware. Don't play with me, buddy, they'll disrespect me like you spit in my face. It's actually

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disrespectful than spitting in my face. You know what I mean, so that's what I mean by not everyone uses Bitcoin. Now you mentioned it a couple. A lot of times already, but you've been in crypto, you know what's crazy, everyone remembers, I got into this with complexes a while ago, yeah, and I was upset because they put me on the list of underperformers.

You said Mark Echo, actually, yeah, yeah. had a meeting, Karen Civil scheduled a meeting with Mark Echo because he owned the complex, so I went there and they, um, we had a long conversation and after we settled everything, we started showing up at each other and he was As you know, I was talking about my concept for the Marathon store. I think I'm going to have 10 stores in the United States. I don't have a retail network like Apple. I could sell my

album

s in my own stores. I could control the aesthetics. the environment that he could surround with products you say, yeah, that's great, but looking at e-commerce, he basically looks at the idea as a story, there's a lot of overhead, yeah, you know, everything is moving towards e-commerce and he He said, look in

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. bitcoin was like oh 13. wow so after that I started doing research and just educating myself about it you know you know I invested late in bitcoin but I knew about it for a long time but you know I have since invested in a company called follow coin, which is a cryptocurrency app, and another one called vest, so you know, we're in the space now, what happened to the lgbt community?

They'd trip you up in a moment when you know, man, they put a record on, come on man, I live in Los Angeles, I'm in the music industry, you're going, there's no way I could disagree with anyone's sexuality, you know what I'm saying and at the end of the day I have people in my family, I have people that I love, my friend, some of the people that I grew up with that know that state lifestyle that I could never judge anyone for his sexuality. What they took out of context was criticism in the media. I did a critique in the media and I was really talking about what my great friend, you, did for children and the image of you know someone who came from prison, who came from gang culture, with what is portrayed as the image around that type of individual and what this person is actually doing and you know, I think it was taken out of context, you know, and that's a delicate thing.

I would never want people to feel alienated or like, damn, you know an artist who inspires me or I admire or someone I respect might look at me as less than that, that's not what I meant, you know what I'm saying and I think they just took it out of context and you know it's a movement right now for acceptance and equality so you know there's a whole machine built behind it it's like a witch hunt you know what I'm saying leave it let anyone say sexism, homophobia, it's a witch hunt, you know what I'm saying, so I fell for it, it's all good.

I know what I mean, I respect it, I'm with the equality movement and everyone respects everyone as individuals. God is the creator and the judge. I am not the judge. I think they were just upset because they felt you were implying that gay people couldn't. They don't look like so-called real men and that was probably the mistake I made in articulating that you know it could be read like that. I could have been clearer, you know what I'm saying, but I personally judge things. of intention we are human we are going to make mistakes but I paid attention to someone what were you trying to say you know what I am saying and if the intention is clear I give the execution a little leeway you know what I am saying or the articulation and I asked everyone looking at me, you know, saying what I was trying to say.

I was trying to big up my friend for creating a banquet for these little neighborhood kids who play soccer, they got everyone to dress up and kick around. There were assassins there at one point in suits, you know, serving food to the kids and you know what I mean. I think we need to do this

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often. I wanted to clarify that. You know what I'm saying, yeah. How have you explored your Eritrean ancestry? Yes, definitely, yes. I'm making a film about the summer of 2003, when I was 18 years old. I went on a retreat for three months out of nowhere, I didn't even know I was going to my brother was actually about to come home and I had a place at the time, I was in a rush, I had a studio, I was knee deep At a young age, I didn't really want to go and I was there for three months and it changed my life.

I was sick the first two weeks. I felt like culture shock. Depressed. I don't understand. I really have no way of knowing what to do. But after the first two weeks, I accepted what was happening. and it was like I had to let go of my comfort, what made me feel comfortable. I was smoking weed every day, riding around the hood in a car with rims and I just had a different comfort zone and once I got out of you know it changed my life, you know, you know, one thing that was unique in the culture of my country is that everything was based on food, so that's what makes a family close, is that you eat with your family, you know, I learned that from Being out there, we moved so fast here in our culture that we could, what's up, break out and go out every seven eight years, we eat at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and even then we run to eat, sit down and come back to grind every day at home from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The whole city closed everything but the restaurants, you know what I'm saying, everyone goes home, the men go home, the kids get out of school and everyone goes to lunch, how does all the energy around black people work? Panther affects you then because you see everyone with the dashikis on and the African clothes and I mean, you mean the fascinating people or just in general who have this sense of pride in the country, man, I think that's important, you know , I mean how if you don't No, if you don't connect with a country, it's devastating. I didn't even understand that until I went, it's devastating if you don't do it, if you can't connect with a country because we know we're not really from America. but some people may have never been where they came from, that was me, that was me, I was raised under my mother's understanding and I don't mean her personally, I just mean that she is a black American of whose grandmother, I mean, mom came.

New Orleans, Louisiana and a couple generations ago were exposed to slavery and you know what I'm saying, to understand it, wait, it's a tradition that's thousands of years old that we connect with and I'm lucky because my dad was born there, so I connect with him in a generation, so I met my grandmother and saw her way of life. This is my dad, mom, it hasn't been five generations, so I connected with him easier or easier maybe than someone who did the ancestry. and find out where they're from and then go visit her, but no one really loves them.

You could say this is my immediate family, but you know, I think that movie was powerful. I saw her on the day of my

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release. I was doing a lot, but I made sure to go buy a ticket and watch it, and just the last line that Michael B. Jordan said was a powerful line, oh, about slavery, what takes me in the ocean, you know what I'm saying . people who knew uh it was definitely better than slavery that's heavy you know what I'm saying that's heavy and I thought I even hit it I'm like man it was a powerful line that's one of the most powerful things I've ever heard because I felt like, viscerally. , being on the streets, would rather die than go to prison for life.

I remember feeling like that. I'm a whole court we used to be in that could make us leave forever. I will say: "Do not enter." this car with me brother, if not, I won't go to jail for not like this, I'm quite a court because it's for me, you'd rather die, who I'm talking to, I have life, you'd rather die, you know what I mean. So I felt like you know, I mean, I think it was a powerful movie. Yeah, when you came here today you said you hadn't smoked in five months. Yeah, so what effect does that have on you and when do you feel like you could do it? quit permanently um I never want to say never because sometimes I get something out of smoking weed, but I think anything in x has become a liability and even for me, as you know, I got an intense promotional campaign, uh, you know, I have to do it. being in front of the camera I have to be on time I have to be, you know, I have to be able to think sharply, so you know, when it comes to going out in public and representing my product, I don't want to be and even in business, You know, you come here smelling like weed, whether they say it or not, they hold it against you, they think they have a little advantage over you if they don't smoke, even now in Cali, being legal, I mean, it's not even legal. like, uh, you're a criminal, it's just that I think faster than you, yeah, I'm more focused than you, I have more discipline than you, I have less need to be comfortable until you say, well, I have my own dispensary and my own strengths yeah, not all that, from the point of view of growing it and selling it legally, we still do it, but just me personally, I don't do drugs, I could drink some wine, you know what I'm saying now, but I don't.

I mean I haven't done it in the past now it's more important to be focused Yeah you said soda too when you came here you said I stopped smoking weed and stuff so he was a soda fan I was drinking lane You know what I am saying? I was pulling and I didn't know how unhealthy that was and I associated it with death, yeah, and part of that is also how much soda you drink. You have to think if you wake up and drink a soda at eight a.m. and you drink soda the rest. of the day brother, I'm skinny, I just got a belly, you know what I'm saying, I don't look very skinny, you know, but in general I feel unhealthy, you know what I'm saying, like no.

I don't like the way I feel your eyes, that shows you know what I mean, so, um, I was like you know I'm out of all that. I'm just going to focus on being healthy, exercising, eating well as best as possible. I can, you know what I mean, stay focused and then I saw my team. I had a convoy talking about marijuana because you know what I mean. It looks like you've been doing yoga. I was making a joke, you know? I'm saying you have a glow. I say no, I quit smoking the wig and then he asked why so I had a conversation with him.

I'm like we leaders have a lot of people following us, so when we stop. A lot of my team quit smoking. You know, I'm saying that a lot of the people that look at me, you know, they're just in the gym now and they focus more on a frequency so you know again that I'm not on the anti-. marijuana campaign, I think it's when you feel like you want to do something violent, you smoke a little marijuana because that's what we're going to smoke, the right filter, it's a marathon, oh smoke, some of that, you know what I'm saying , I have a couple more questions, you talk about being a leader on bases loaded withCeelo, you say a couple, I'm paraphrasing, but a couple from every generation that reminds us of our strength and our stolen greatness, yeah, expand that line a little bit, um.

He said um, look, there's a couple in every generation that wasn't supposed to come out, but they decode the matrix and when they get to speak it's like a stolen language or it's like a coded language that remembers that they strengthen all the stolen greatness, yeah, that It's clear. right, I think it means yes to me it's like you know and I say that in the most humble way. No, I'm not trying to big up my gangster or my hustler when I say this, but you know, being black is the Yeah, it's a privilege to be black too and to even come from where we come from and what you know we were involved in and just be a part of it. from the 90s in the 2000s in South Central Los Angeles, being active, I don't know many people who made it, took over gang enhancement technology, started putting cameras everywhere, but our culture didn't adapt fast enough, so they still raised us to go down the street, go out and shoot even those cameras everywhere, even though they have cell phone towers, so we were victims of technology, so the fact that we're here, you know, I feel like you know it's one of two or three, maybe, hopefully, more every generation that somehow you know, I think it's my God. opinion that you know keeps you protected through those situations while you learn what you're really here for, but you know it constantly reminds us of who we are 100 and being able to speak from a place of experience, but on a platform and from where you know. from a place of success what to tell people, man I got this, I got real real, that would be like a man, I'm gonna shed a tear listening to this album, bro, like serving a life sentence as a man, you know what I'm saying , this is emotional. listening to this cause they know, you know what I'm saying, it might be music to someone, but it was in those cars with us and then in those places with us and I really went through it again in a humble way, I don't mean this like it's a super difficult one, I just mean the path he took um it's like damn, you know, that's my friend, you know, I know him, you know, I mean, I know what it means to him to be there, you know, so that's what that the lines speak. and another great example is how you guys on the

west

coast are so supportive of each other just seeing the relationships you have with other artists.

I know they feel the love because sometimes people where they are from don't feel that love that was something we did consciously and it's not fake like if I was really with you, I respect why I see that I work a lot together, yes, and that's not for the cameras, you know what I mean, I have four five. one hour combos with yg he was supposed to be there tonight he got shot i was in the studio the next few days cutting it with him um you know what i'm saying my mom and his mom know each other you know i'm with uh j305 i with dom kennedy you know what i mean um and everyone else g malone you know what i say game classes yeah you know what i mean hoover schoolboy i have respect for the schoolboy you know what i mean the meat of our neighborhood in a real real way on the site killing the vacuum cleaners on the neighborhood card, you feel me, but I have respect for the school board and I understand it, you know, one of the reasons is because I saw what happened with that, you know, I'm saying you can Don't mix that up, you gotta have some kind of it's like it's the county jail, we're all here bro, there's no way around it, we gotta have some structure in the county, there's going to be times when you know you're coming in. a bedroom and it will be like brother, you are the enemy, you have to fight, but we are not going to jump on you, we are going to warn you, that is the structure because if they attack you in this bedroom, what do you think will happen next door?

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Your friend who is surrounded by 15 of my friends here is being stabbed in this bedroom. What's going to happen next door? They're all going to be killed, so a structure that prevents her from going crazy. Do you know how to achieve that mentality? That means you guys actually had a conversation like this is a conscious thing, we're going to make sure we support each other and not on those terms, but on the surface, we don't want to divide the fanbase, we don't want all the crips to travel with nip and all. The blood that runs with YG we don't want everyone to feel that what they hear is a reflection of their loyalty to the current side.

We want to think and know what music is and the demonstration we make. You know it will impact the generation. Then, recently, it's an artist from Los Angeles called greedo, he's from Grave Street, he's an artist from Los Angeles called RJ, he's from Atenas Park. They had some internet going around and it looked like it was going to become a thing. They did a concert together rj against greedo the whole street uva was on stage with greedo all the bloods of athen park were on stage with rj and they had their purple flags and their red flags and I don't know, the whole city was like that, it would become in a bloodbath kevin music and at the end they did that song they had together you know that's cool I saluted him and I respected him because I was in the cut looking like you were there no I was just on the internet watching the back and forth , You know?

And I was like, I hope this doesn't spill over because that's going to impact everything the wrong way and they, you know, they did it like bosses and then they turned it into a concert, they made money, they put on a good show, it was a competitive thing. energy in the end they did it, they were stitched together and now it became a series of shows, so I think it's so political that we have to be aware and we have to create, you know, some structure so that we can stay. Here, how do you make that mentality translate to the street?

So what are you all doing in the industry? How do you make that translate to the entire street? People made right decisions so you're going to look at what this group of people did and what the repercussions were and what the comments were when they did this and you're going to look at what this group of people did and look at the comments you want to go to jail. for life you want to get killed do what we were doing to you I want to get you some money level up create brands build your team get your family get your friends to follow what we do is your choice my last question for nick man because I'm traveling in the car and I'm like nip boy come in some for this you said your lover is Creole how do you get away with it?

It's the music man oh I said I said my wife is a c note I said this life is a free throw my life my wife is a c note but my lover is Creole you know that was number one I recorded it before me, before i got a real girl, oh that's the disclaimer, although it's a fact, but then again, he's a musician, like my girls are actresses if she kisses on camera, but i . I'm angry, no, do your thing. I love the fact that you said your girl, so you guys are back together. You guys are fine, yeah, yeah, we're solid players too.

That's all I'm going to say about it. reason I asked because she doesn't play, yeah she doesn't run over you, yeah she ran over Charlotte, she knows how to defend herself and stand up, you know what I mean and you know, she's from LA, she grew up, a lot of people . She might think she has a privileged background, she doesn't have a privileged background, they think she's new to real life, that's what they think of Atlanta, yeah, yeah, yeah, but she comes from L.A., a man and you know what I mean, she's solid, so you know.

I don't even have to, she saw Charlemagne concentrating, but I told her, I told her from Jump, although I'm going to meet Charlemagne and, like the man Charlotte, respect Charlemagne, you know what I mean, Charlemagne, known for be honest and you. I know what I'm talking about, but I know where she stands and I think you all have a similar mindset in terms of what's right, you know what I'm saying, so yeah, she has a lot of love and respect for you, bro. She recommended a book to me but I don't remember the name. I was going to ask you, yeah, what she was, but she said she recommended it to you too, oh yeah, no, this is a powerful book, it's called the path of the superior man.

Wait, that's it, there you go, yes, she also proposed that book to me. I'm not going to lie to you. I said it's a book that women shouldn't give out today, man, unless they're really confident in themselves because the message of that book is basically for powerful people. men how to deal with your power because you know you have options you get power money and fame you could go crazy so it gives you a unique perspective you know what I'm saying about the right way to do things. You know what I mean, yeah, from the altar perspective, you know it's heavy, okay though, we appreciate you joining us, yeah, and it's the breakfast club, come on.