Am I the only one that thinks all the Nipsey worship is greatly misplaced and bandwaggedy?
Dude wasn't some great upstanding citizen. He was a gang member who promoted gang member activities and every now and then spoke about entrepreneurship in the hood.
Should have told a lot of people something when the LAPD and all the cacs came out of the woodworks talking about what a great guy he was as though he should be viewed as some kind of role model for black youth.
Nip was still finding himself, but he wasn't a "normal" gang member...
Typical gangmembers don't have vision beyond today. Nip was no longer dealing drugs and hadn't for years, he wasn't out frontlining street beefs anymore either...
Nip's big mistake is he didn't dissociate from the set enough. You can be philanthropic and a role model to your hood without spending time there, but for some reason he needed to be there way too often. He needed to be around the homies way too often, and as an inactive, reformed street guy myself, I get it. Where you're from and who you came up around and everything you went thru to get where you are today, is part of the fabric of who you are...
And it's difficult as fukk to break that sentiment. The people you associated with along your journey, the spots you laid your head at and ran thru, those places hold sentimental value, and even with the urge of maturity and change, these people and places pull at you...
At some point you outgrow the people and the places that helped shape who you are. I think Nip knew this part, it was evident in how he was growing as a businessman and role model, and probably as a man in his personal life, but he didn't know how to separate himself...
That was his fatal flaw and there have been thousands upon thousands of guys who came before and after him who had the same mistake, who yall will never know or hear about, because they weren't celebrities. But it's human and at least for me, it's hella recognizable and relatable...
He can and could be viewed as a role model, but people also shouldnt trip if others dont view him that way, because amongst other things, he did promote gangbanging, and he actively politicized with gang members. But by all accounts he was a good guy, and people who are if the mind to hold him as a role model, are doing a disservice if they only highlight what was publicly great about him and ignore the aspects you should teach people not to follow. Because you can grow into an enterpreneurial, philanthropic, kind-natured person without dealing narcotics, gangbanging, and promoting those lifestyles publicly...
So yes, there is truth to his popularity being bandwagonny. But another part of the truth is he deserved more respect for his music during his life, and he deserved more people around him who he'd listen to, to help guide him on how to dissociate himself from lifestyles he was outgrowing...
I disagree. People fukked with Dolph’s music heavy and he was legit popular. He had hits. Nip wasn’t popping like that and had limited exposure outside the west. He had fans and Victory Lap clearly got him on the cusp of truly breaking out but he wasn’t on a Dolph/Kevin Gates/Polo G/etc type level of success.
Nip was more known for “relationship goals” than his music before he died…
Dolph was not bigger than Nip, they were virtually the same stature of rapper----->both had been grinding in the industry for years before death; both had a core, diehard fan base; both were somewhat nationally known, not international stars, but not nationally irrelevant, with the root of their fan bases being regional (South for Dolph, West for Nip) but both had notable popularity outside of their home regions---->even if calling them "superstar rappers" is a bit hyperbolic, they weren't nobodies and people up on hip hop and certainly within the industry itself, had at least
heard of both, even if they weren't necessarily listeners to either...