Nipsey Hussle's Death — Twitter screenshot of XXL Magazine post with LAPD chief's statement on Nipsey Hussle and a reply about his community impact

Nipsey Hussle's Death

2019eventclassic

Published September 8, 2026

The March 31, 2019 shooting death of Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle outside his Marathon Clothing store in South Los Angeles set off a same-day flood of online tributes from NBA stars, musicians and fans. The tragedy also sparked a widely circulated conspiracy theory linking his killing to an unfinished documentary he was making about herbalist Dr. Sebi.

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Overview

Nipsey Hussle's Death describes the online reaction to the March 31, 2019 fatal shooting of rapper Ermias Davidson Asghedom, better known as Nipsey Hussle, outside his Marathon Clothing store on Slauson Avenue in South Los Angeles1. The response took shape as two parallel tracks that ran side by side for weeks: an enormous tribute wave from athletes and musicians, and a conspiracy theory tying the killing to a documentary Hussle was making about herbalist Dr. Sebi5.

The tribute side dominated hip-hop and NBA timelines the same afternoon the news broke. Pitchfork logged memorial posts from Drake, Rihanna, ASAP Rocky, Talib Kweli, Gucci Mane, 21 Savage, Vince Staples, Meek Mill, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Pump, Soulja Boy, Swizz Beats and Boi-1da within 24 hours3. NBA.com curated a separate wall of tributes from basketball, with Warriors guard Steph Curry addressing Hussle's passing at a postgame press conference the same night2.

The conspiracy side spread mainly through YouTube commentary and Instagram captions. Users argued that Hussle had been silenced because of his work on a film about Dr. Sebi, a Honduran herbalist who in 1985 claimed a plant-based diet could cure AIDS5. That angle stayed active long after the initial news cycle, feeding a genre of explainer videos and long captions that treated the shooting as more than a personal dispute5.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter / Instagram (tribute spread), YouTube (Dr. Sebi conspiracy videos)
Date
2019

Nipsey Hussle was shot multiple times at roughly 3:20 p.m. on March 31, 2019 in the area of Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard, outside the Marathon Clothing smart store he had opened the previous year at 3420 W. Slauson Avenue1. He was 33. Two other men wounded in the same incident were transported to a hospital in stable condition, while Hussle was pronounced dead1. He had been nominated for Best Rap Album at that year's Grammys for his debut studio LP Victory Lap, losing to Cardi B, after more than a decade building an independent music operation out of Crenshaw1.

Los Angeles police soon named 29-year-old Eric Holder as the primary suspect, saying the two men knew each other and that the shooting appeared to stem from a personal dispute5. Hussle's final tweet, posted hours before the attack, read: "Having strong enemies is a blessing."1 The rapper's birth name was Ermias Davidson Asghedom, and he had founded the All Money In record label in 2010 alongside a network of businesses including The Marathon Agency and SC Commercial Ventures1.

How It Spread

News of the shooting broke on Twitter within minutes of LAPD confirming a victim had been rushed to hospital1. By evening, hip-hop, NBA and general pop-culture accounts were reposting the same handful of Nipsey photos alongside quotes from his lyrics. NBA.com bundled the league's reaction the same night, noting that Curry had interviewed Hussle for his "5 Minutes from Home" YouTube series in July 2018 and had built a real friendship with him2. Nuggets guard Isaiah Thomas had also been close with the rapper and was quoted in the roundup2.

Pitchfork published a running roll-call of hip-hop's response the next morning, pulling in Drake's line "Nobody ever talks down on your name you were a real one to your people and to the rest of us," Rihanna's "My spirit is shaken by this," and Talib Kweli's "One of my favorite things in the world to do was tell people how much they were sleeping on Nipsey Hussle"3. LeBron James and Chance the Rapper posted widely shared tributes on Twitter that were picked up by every major music blog covering the story5.

Within days, a second thread took over parts of the conversation. Vibe reported that Nick Cannon posted a smiling photo with Hussle captioned "And the Lord said, 'Job well done my son,'" and separately vowed on Instagram to finish Hussle's Dr. Sebi documentary, writing "It's a MARATHON, so I'm picking up the baton"4. YouTube commentary channels including Gematria Effect News uploaded videos arguing the killing had been ordered to suppress the film, with one such video passing 49,000 views5. The original background clip embedded on the Know Your Meme entry gave later viewers a way back into the story6.

How to Use This Meme

This is an event rather than a template meme, so there is no image macro or catchphrase to reproduce. Posts about Nipsey Hussle's Death typically pair a photo of the rapper with a lyric, a Marathon Clothing reference, or the phrase "The Marathon Continues," which fans use as both a tribute tag and a nod to his mixtape series3. Conspiracy-style posts about the Dr. Sebi angle typically stitch clips of Hussle discussing the herbalist with images of Dr. Sebi himself4.

Frequently Asked Questions