Officials say rapper Nipsey Hussle shot, killed at 33

NIPSEY Hussle, the skilled and respected rapper who earned a Grammy nomination this year for his major-label debut and was heavily respected in South Los Angeles where he grew up, has died, authorities said. He was 33.

The Los Angeles Crisis Response team said Sunday that “we lost a great musician” and support has been offered to Hussle’s family.

“Our prayers are with them and all those who knew and loved Nipsey Hussle,” the crisis team said.

Police said three men were shot Sunday and one of them killed outside Marathon Clothing, the store Hussle owns. Police said the other two men were in stable condition.

Representatives for the rapper didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking confirmation of his death.

Hussle, whose real name is Ermias Asghedom, was born on Aug. 15, 1985, in the Crenshaw neighborhood of south Los Angeles. The Eritrean-American said his first passion was music but getting resources was tough since he left his mother’s house at 14 to live with his grandmother. Hussle said he got involved in street life as he tried to support himself, and he joined the gang Rollin 60′s Neighborhood Crips as a teenager.

Music eventually happened for Hussle. The proud West Coast rapper released a number of successful mixtapes that he sold out of the trunk of his car, helping him create a buzz and gain respect from rap purists and his peers. In 2010 he placed on hip-hop magazine XXL’s “Freshman Class of 2010”—a coveted list for up-and-coming hip-hop acts—alongside J. Cole Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, Jay Rock and others.

Hussle continued to build more hype for himself, and Jay-Z even bought 100 copies of Hussle’s 2013 mixtape “Crenshaw” for $100 each, sending the budding rapper a $10,000 check.

But Hussle, who was once signed to Sony’s Epic Records, hit a new peak with “Victory Lap,” his critically acclaimed major-label debut album on Atlantic Records that made several best-of lists last year, from Billboard magazine to Complex. The album debuted at number four on Billboard’s 200 albums charts and featured collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Diddy, CeeLo Green and more.

At this year’s Grammy Awards, “Victory Lap” was one of five nominees for best rap album in a year that hip-hop dominated the pop charts and streaming services and a number of top stars released projects, including Drake, Eminem and Kanye West.

Outside of music, Hussle said he wanted to provide hope and motivation to those who grew up in Crenshaw like him, and pay it forward.

Hussle was also a strong businessman. In a story published in February, Forbes wrote that the rapper and business partner Dave Gross purchased the Crenshaw plaza where his Marathon Clothing store is located, and had plans to knock it down and “rebuild it as a six-story residential building atop a commercial plaza where a revamped Marathon store will be the anchor tenant.”