Author: paiidbabybrii

You may not have heard the name Nipsey Hussle before he was shot and killed on March 31, 2019, in Los Angeles. But news of Hussle’s death went viral and led to an online outpouring of grief and love from huge names in the music industry and beyond, from Chance the Rapper to Colin Kapernick to Ava DuVernay.

His April 11 memorial service, live-streamed online, boasted an impressive array of speakers. Artists like Jhene Aiko performed in Hussle’s memory; Snoop Dogg and Stevie Wonder gave eulogies. Former President Barack Obama even sent a letter offering condolences to Hussle’s family, commending a life well-lived. A procession following the funeral reportedly attracted more than 21,000 fans, walking alongside Hussle’s casket.

But while some of popular culture’s biggest tastemakers mourn, many casual observers ask: Who is Nipsey Hussle?

Hussle, who was 33 years old when he died, was a Grammy-nominated rapper — as well as an entrepreneur, community activist, and father of two. Within the music industry, he was an established presence who had collaborated with artists as big as Drake and Diddy.

He also had a violent past and had spoken publicly about his long affiliation with the Rollin’ 60s, an LA-area gang that is connected to the Crips. But more recently, it seemed as though Hussle had distanced himself from the gang. He was involved in community activism, working to empower and employ underprivileged groups through real estate investments, science and tech learning centers for teens, and other efforts in inner-city Los Angeles.

Hussle was reportedly planning to attend an anti-gang violence meeting on the day he died, scheduled for not long after he and two other men were shot outside a store he owned called Marathon Clothing.

While early news reports suggested Hussle’s murder was gang-related, the Los Angeles Police Department’s ongoing investigation revealed that Hussle and his suspected killer — a man named Eric Holder, who was arrested shortly after Hussle was pronounced dead — got into a heated argument prior to the shooting. While Holder is alleged to be a gang member himself, the New York Times reports that the LAPD does not believe the argument or shooting was gang-related. There is still no clear motive. (Additionally, a vigil held for Hussle erupted into chaos when a fight and alleged sounds of gunshots caused a stampede that injured 19 people. However, police confirmed no one was shot at the scene.)

EARLY LIFE

Kentrell Gaulden was born on October 20, 1999, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. YoungBoy broke his neck while wrestling as a toddler, the injury requiring a head brace until the spine healed. The brace left permanent scars on his forehead. YoungBoy was raised mainly by his maternal grandmother due to his father being sentenced to 55 years in prison. He dropped out of ninth grade and told his mom he wanted to focus on his music career and was soon arrested for robbery and sent to a detention center in Tallulah, Louisiana. While there, he began writing lyrics for his debut project.

After he was released from the detention center, Gaulden’s grandmother died of heart failure and Gaulden moved in with his friend and fellow Baton Rouge rapper, NBA 3Three (also known as OG 3Three). The two then used acts of criminality to begin to pay for studio time.

CAREER

2016–2017: Beginnings and A.I. YoungBoy

YoungBoy first began producing music with a microphone he bought from Walmart when he was fourteen years old. He released his first mixtape, Life Before Fame in 2015. A string of other mixtapes followed including Mind of a Menace, Mind of a Menace 2, and Before I Go. YoungBoy attracted attention with his October 2016 mixtape, 38 Baby which featured fellow Baton Rouge natives, Boosie Badazz, Kevin Gates, and fellow rappers Stroke Tha Don and NBA 3Three. A week later, YoungBoy released another mixtape titled Mind of a Menace 3 on November 4, 2016. YoungBoy’s quick rise to popularity could also be attributed to his “song-for-song rap beef” with fellow Baton Rouge rapper Scotty Cain in December 2015, in which songs from both rappers included death threats. Although no real violence ever occurred between the two Baton Rouge rappers, their feuding attracted a lot of attention.

In December 2016, YoungBoy was arrested in Austin, Texas on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder in connection with an alleged drive-by shooting. While in jail in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, YoungBoy released two mixtapes Before I Go: Reloaded and Mind of a Menace 3: Reloaded including “Win or Lose”, “Don’t Matter”, and “Too Much”. YoungBoy was released from prison in May 2017 after taking a plea deal and posting bail. A week after leaving prison, YoungBoy released the single, “Untouchable”.

In July 2017, YoungBoy released a video for his song, “41”, that included cameos from notable artists including, Meek Mill, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Boosie Badazz, and Yo Gotti. On August 3, 2017, he released his mixtape, A.I. YoungBoy which charted at 24 on the Billboard 200. The single, “Untouchable”, peaked at number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The second single from AI YoungBoy, “No Smoke” peaked at number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. Also in August 2017, YoungBoy announced the A.I. YoungBoy tour.

2018: Until Death Call My Name

YoungBoy announced his debut studio album, Until Death Call My Name in January 2018, shortly after signing a joint venture deal with Atlantic Records. The album was released on April 27, 2018. He released the single “Outside Today” on January 6, 2018. The song became Gaulden’s highest charting song, peaking at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite being arrested in February 2018, Gaulden promised a new mixtape. Youngboy was released from prison on March 15, and his next mixtape Master The Day Of Judgement was released on May 19, 2018. Throughout the summer of 2018, Youngboy released a series of four EPs, each containing four tracks. The first of which, 4Respect, was released on August 24, followed by 4Freedom, 4Loyalty and 4WhatImportant on August 30, September 6 and September 14, respectively. In conjunction with the final part being released, all four EPs were combined into a 16 track compilation titled 4Respect 4Freedom 4Loyalty 4WhatImportant. Youngboy’s 12th mixtape Decided was released on September 7, 2018, with a sole guest appearance from Trippie Redd and peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200. On December 20, Youngboy released another mixtape, Realer featuring guest appearances from Lil Baby and Plies.

2019–present: Youtube Charts and A.I YoungBoy 2

YoungBoy Never Broke Again performing in early 2019

As of January 2019, YoungBoy Never Broke Again has been on YouTube‘s Top Music Artists list in the United States for the previous 101 weeks, making him the most-watched musician across all genres. This has been mainly due in part to his consistency of releasing music regularly and exclusively on YouTube. He is also the 9th best selling artist on the 2019 Billboard Mid Year Charts and is seventh in the top ten artists ranked by on-demand audio streams without dropping a project in the first six months of 2019.

NBA YoungBoy is currently serving a 14-month-long house arrest sentence, following a probation violation earlier this year. Therefore, he’s unable to record music from anywhere besides his house. On September 25, 2019, YoungBoy released the “aptly titled” single “House Arrest Tingz”.

On October 10, 2019, YoungBoy released his mixtape AI YoungBoy 2, marking his first full length project since 2018’s Realer. The mixtape is a sequel to his 2017 breakout AI Youngboy and features 18 songs, including the previously released song “Slime Mentality”. YoungBoy was able to get his first number one album on the Billboard 200 because the album had accumulated 144.7 million on-demand audio streams during its first week, becoming one of the top ten biggest streaming debuts of 2019.

who was Tupac Shakur?

Tupac Shakur was an american rapper and actor who came to embody the 1990’s gangsta rap aesthetic, and who in death became an icon symbolizing noble struggle. He has sold 75 million albums to date, making him one of the top-selling artist of all time. In life, his biggest battle was sometimes with himself. As fate drove him towards the nihilism of gangsta rap, and into the arms of the controversial Death Row Records impresario Suge Knight, the boundaries between Shakur’s art and his life became increasingly blurred — with tragic consequences. 

Early life

Tupac was born on June 16, 1971, in Harlem, New York. His mother, Afeni, was raising two children on her own and struggled for money. The family moved homes often, sometimes staying in shelters.

They moved to Baltimore, where Tupac enrolled at the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts, at which he felt “the freest I ever felt.”

Tupac vs. Biggie Smalls (aka The Notorious B.I.G.)

Before Tupac released his third album, there was more trouble. In November 1994, he was shot multiple times in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio, Quad, by two young black men.

Tupac believed his rap rival Biggie Smalls was behind the shooting, for which nobody has ever been charged. (Smalls always denied he knew anything; in 2011 Dexter Isaac, a New York prisoner serving a life sentence for an unrelated crime, claimed he was paid to steal from Tupac by the artist manager and mogul James “Henchman” Rosemond, and shot the rapper during the robbery).

In June 1996, Tupac released a diss track, “Hit ‘Em Up,” aimed at Biggie Smalls and his label boss at Bad Boy Records, Sean “Diddy” Combs— ratcheting up the tension between East and West Coast rap. Their rivalry was fast becoming hip hop’s most famous — and ugliest — beef. Within three months, Tupac was murdered.

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Hi my name is Brianna but people call me bri. Today were going to learn more about me and why I started I started making music. So when I was 8, my father past away and it was really hard for me because he was the only parent I had around, and in 2nd and 3rd grade I always got bullied and what I mean by “I always got bullied” is when the teacher would leave the classroom two male students would hold me back in the classroom while one boy was holding me the other boy would hit really hard and all of that lead to depression so my sister put me in therapy but I didn’t like talking so she told me to write me feelings down. one day on thanksgiving my cousins preformed a song and that gave me an idea. So, I started to rapping, my first song was called “it might sound crazy”. one day I was in the library with my friend and I rapped my song to him and said I should post it on Instagram and I said “okay lets do it but I don’t think its going to be a hit” so I did it and the next day I checked my Instagram and I had a lot of views and likes so I thought maybe i’m good at this, so I started writing songs and preforming them to my family and that’s my story of why I started rapping and why I like it so much. My advice to you is to write your feelings down or put them on a beat and share it to the world it really helps. this is my introduction.