Last Updated on September 6, 2024
Born in August 15, 1985, Ermias Joseph Asghedom grew up in the Crenshaw neighborhood of South Los Angeles.
He left home at the age of 14 to join a sub-group of a large gang operating at his home neighborhood. His stage name “Nipsey Hussle” (stylized as Nipsey Hu$$le) was a nickname given to him by a childhood friend.
Going Into Music
His debut into the music scene started with his first mixtape, Slauson Boy Volume 1. The small regional fanbase caught attention and eventually led to Nipsey Hussle being signed to Cinematic Music Group and Epic Records. Financial issues with Epic led him to not renew his contract with them and to go independently. He founded his own record label, All Money In.
Aside from producing his own songs, Hussle ventured farther out, opening the Marathon Clothing store on June 17, 2017. The store was meant to give opportunities in the Hyde Park neighborhood. The store also gave exclusive access to rapper content through an app.
More Than Just a Hussle
He also funded improvements to schools around his neighborhood while participating on panels about growing up being exposed to gang culture. Hussle focused on giving solutions and inspiration to young black men through education and livelihood projects. He also coordinated with LAPD officials and Roc Nation on what they can do to help prevent gang violence in South Los Angeles. This was scheduled to happen on April 1, 2019.
On March 31, 2019, Hussle was shot in the parking lot of his own store. His death was widely mourned by fellow artists and those in the neighborhood whose lives were changed by his acts.
Though he may be gone, these moving Nipsey Hussle quotes will remain with us, inspiring us to build a life of purpose and success.
Inspiring Nipsey Hussle Quotes
1. “If you look at the people in your circle and don’t get inspired, then you don’t have a circle. You have a cage.” – Nipsey Hussle
2. “Be more fearless. All my radical moonshots have defined me. That don’t be my downfall, my downfall will be not going crazy, not having a higher expectation. Anytime I done set my sight on something that seemed way outlandish, it always come back exactly how I seen it. So, I think I would tell myself to just put way bigger goals on the wall. Just have a bigger vision, have a higher expectation.” – Nipsey Hussle
3. “You will never be criticized by someone who is doing more than you. You will only be criticized by someone who is doing less than you. Remember that.” – Nipsey Hussle
4. “The best thing you can do for a person is to inspire them. That’s the best currency you can offer: inspiration.” – Nipsey Hussle
5. “A speaker of truth has no friends.” – Nipsey Hussle
6. “Without a game plan and without a strong sense of faith in what you’re doing, it’s gonna be real hard to accomplish anything.” – Nipsey Hussle
7. “I just believe in ownership… I believe in investing in yourself…Your foundation should be strong.” – Nipsey Hussle
8. “Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.” –Nipsey Hussle
9. “I never wanted to alienate my brand for business … I always wanted to keep it authentic and keep as pure as I could.” – Nipsey Hussle
10. “My thing is that I don’t give no person that much power over my path that I’m walking. Not one person can make or break what I’m doing, except me or God.” – Nipsey Hussle
11. “Luck is just bein’ prepared at all times, so when the door opens you’re ready.” – Nipsey Hussle
12. “Seize the opportunity, believe and take control of it. Then get on your marathon and grind it ’til it’s over with.” – Nipsey Hussle
13. “Your parents are supposed to tell you to make decisions that are gonna help you and that’ll have a positive effect on your life and your well-being.” – Nipsey Hussle
14. “I’m more focused on giving solutions and inspiration more than anything.” – Nipsey Hussle
15. “I’m focusing on the music, but I still got a cold library of books that I’ve either read or I plan on getting to.” – Nipsey Hussle
16. “To me, respect comes first.” – Nipsey Hussle
17. “Hopin’ what I’m doing truly make my mama proud, ‘Cause for a very long time, I was the reason for her frowns.”- Nipsey Hussle
18. “Be truthful with yourself and other people, and try your best to make decisions outside of your ego.” – Nipsey Hussle
19. “I’d rather invest in real estate — invest in some assets as opposed to trick all my money in diamonds and cars — it look good but at the end of the day you’re losing value. It ain’t appreciating, it’s depreciating. (I’m trying to get) a real asset. Take care of my people.” – Nipsey Hussle
20. “Material things ain’t nothing, you feel me? At the end of the day it’s who you is.” – Nipsey Hussle
21. “Success or greatness come with a roller-coaster ride… anybody can apply the marathon concept to what they do.” – Nipsey Hussle
22. “We’re not the cause, we’re the effect.” – Nipsey Hussle
23. “I’m at peace with what I’m doing, I feel good with what I wake up doing and about my lifestyle.”- Nipsey Hussle
24. “If you don’t know your full-throttle history, the whole story of how you came to where you are, it’s kind of hard to put things together.” – Nipsey Hussle
25. “On a mission your worst enemy is idle time.” – Nipsey Hussle
26. “I always had passion for rap music and I was always trying to create a situation to where I could do this full-time.” – Nipsey Hussle
27. “And it’s possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.” – Nipsey Hussle
28. “Before rap my last name was my lifestyle, and when I visualize success it looked like right now.” – Nipsey Hussle
29. “Most of the time I look inside, And find the answers waitin’.” – Nipsey Hussle
30. “Gangbanging is a survival instinct, regardless of how anybody tries to paint it.” – Nipsey Hussle
31. “Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.” – Nipsey Hussle
32. “And it can be as simple as it seems, If you never doubt yourself and learn from everything you see” – Nipsey Hussle
33. “I’m the type person, my safe place to be emotional is the booth.” – Nipsey Hussle
34. “I was never ignorant, as far as being experienced in classrooms and learning about different subjects and actually soaking it up.” – Nipsey Hussle
35. “I believe that economics is based on scarcity of markets and it’s possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.” – Nipsey Hussle
36. “Circle got smaller everybody can’t go” – Nipsey Hussle
37. “Thought is powerful in all phases. Even in my career, even in my life, things end up exactly how I visualized them.” – Nipsey Hussle
38. “I think you can give a pure artistic product if you understand how to build your own industry.” – Nipsey Hussle
39. “I knew I wanted to work for myself when I was about eleven”- Nipsey Hussle
40. “I’m about seeing long-term, seeing a vision, understanding nothing really worthwhile happens overnight, and just sticking to your script long enough to make something real happen.”- Nipsey Hussle
41. “None of my peers avoided prison. None of ’em.” – Nipsey Hussle
42. “I realized the power of hip-hop. I realized how influential this music and this culture are.” – Nipsey Hussle
43. “Black people in America, people from the struggle, immigrants, it’s no generational wealth that we are attached to, so we are tasked to create – in one generation – closing the gap. That’s why we so Doomsday about getting to the check: ’cause it’s life or death for real.” – Nipsey Hussle
44. “If I wasn’t involved in this hip-hop sh*t, I’d probably be breakin’ the law to eat and feed my family and maintain the lifestyle that I’m used to.” – Nipsey Hussle
45. “Every artist wants something different out the game.” – Nipsey Hussle
46. “Life is what you make it, I hope you make a movement.” – Nipsey Hussle
47. “I grew up in an environment where being polite was taken as a weakness. So I just fought everybody.” – Nipsey Hussle
48. “When I became a man, and I started to understand the difference between the truth and what your parents are supposed to tell you, there’s a difference, know what I mean?” – Nipsey Hussle
49. “I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.” – Nipsey Hussle
50. “I hit the league straight out the streets wit no talent scout.” – Nipsey Hussle
51. “Ain’t gone be no east cost west coast war. Ain’t gone be no black men killing black men.” – Nipsey Hussle
52. “We playing the long game. We don’t want the money to stop when we go. When we can’t work no more. We want it to outlive us, we want it to be generational” – Nipsey Hussle
53. “I call it ‘dropping the rope’. You’ve got to drop a rope. Everybody got to climb up, but you gotta drop the rope.” – Nipsey Hussle
54. “If you’ve got a plan, it’s not just like a pipe dream. You have a step-by-step list of things to do to get to your goal.” – Nipsey Hussle
55. “You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.” – Nipsey Hussle
56. “An artist always know everything he does, you know what I’m saying, all the record he starts and don’t end up in the public and just sit on the harddrive.” – Nipsey Hussle
57. “I identify myself as a hustler since I was a young kid.” – Nipsey Hussle
58. “As gang members, as young dudes in the streets, especially in L.A., we’re the effect of a situation. We didn’t wake up and create our own mindstate and our environment; we adapted our survival instincts.” – Nipsey Hussle
59. “I built a company at the same time I built a career.” – Nipsey Hussle
60. “Obviously from childhood to my teenage years, I really came into my own. I left the house early; I was on the streets when I was, like, 15. I’ve been holdin’ my own since that age.” – Nipsey Hussle
61. “I say it’s worth it, I won’t say it’s fair, Find your purpose or you wastin air.” – Nipsey Hussle
62. “Turning up my hustle’s how I give myself a raise” – Nipsey Hussle
63. “Started out the trunk, ended up at the dealership” – Nipsey Hussle
64. “If you’re a hustler, you should find somewhere to capitalize off that and turn it into some money.” – Nipsey Hussle
65. “I don’t know about hell, I don’t know about heaven, All I know is ’bout right now and this lifestyle is interesting” – Nipsey Hussle
66. “Every step is like chess; The wrong move gets you killed, So we act on how we think, And never speak on how we feel.” – Nipsey Hussle
67. “And what good is dreaming, If you can’t make your sh*t come true?” – Nipsey Hussle
68. “What good is a team, When everyone depends on you?” – Nipsey Hussle
69. “‘Cause if you sharing your success, And not your struggle, you’s a fool.” – Nipsey Hussle
70. “I’m tryin’ to live my life, so when it’s over I got no regrets” – Nipsey Hussle
71. “Try to have more faith and less fear
Try to express it to your peers
I’m talking ’bout dreams
Better to do it and let it be seen, cause then it’s so clear” – Nipsey Hussle
72. “I hate to lose so I play too rough” – Nipsey Hussle
73. “Finish what we started, reach them heights, you know?” – Nipsey Hussle
74. “Play the game like I’ve never won once” – Nipsey Hussle
75. “Gotta cross my T’s and dot my I’s or I can’t sleep well” – Nipsey Hussle
76. “Don’t worry ’bout what people gon’ say girl do what you want to” – Nipsey Hussle
77. “Don’t waste your time, it don’t make you rich” – Nipsey Hussle
78. “When you let go of your pride, you’ll find a lesson in your pain” – Nipsey Hussle
79. “This technology has empowered everybody. And it’s giving people, you know, it’s as big as you wanna make it and, you know, it’s as far as you take it” – Nipsey Hussle
80. “It’s strictly business in this game, still they faking friendly. Don’t let em take advantage of you and it make em envy” – Nipsey Hussle
81. “Instead of trying to build a brick wall, lay a brick everyday. Eventually you’ll look up and you’ll have a brick wall.”- Nipsey Hussle
82. “Most important thing is to get rid of doubt. If you got doubt in what you’re doing it’s not gonna work.”- Nipsey Hussle
83. “You’ve got to have faith in what you’re doing and not take no for an answer.” – Nipsey Hussle
84. “Success to me is just being able to do what you love to do and support yourself all through.” – Nipsey Hussle
85. “We got turned down, we failed, had set backs, had to start over a lot of times. But we kept going at it. In anybody’s case that’s always the distinguishing factor.” – Nipsey Hussle
86. “Define who you are and what you are, and be clear on that. Meditate on that and then, live and die by that. You can’t break the rules, the fundamental rules. Be a man of your word, do what you say you’re gonna do, respect people the way you would like to be respected.” – Nipsey Hussle
87. “Most important thing to get rid of is doubt. If you got doubt in what you’re doing it’s not going to work.” – Nipsey Hussle
88. “The company you keep has a large influence on the situations you bring to yourself.” – Nipsey Hussle
89. “I taught all my (people) how to fish. Some caught more than others. Some said they rather be fed. Some passed me up in the process. But at the end of it all, I know I ain’t hide the game from my people and I’m real for that.” – Nipsey Hussle
90. “I took my wildest dreams then mapped them out. I go for mine like it’s overtime, me and my n*ggas had to struggle so we over-shine.” – Nipsey Hussle
