5 Things Every Artist Should Learn From Nipsey Hussle
Nipsey Hussle was a truly incredible artist and human being. His loss is insane and everyone is feeling how horrible this is. I personally was just at his radio taping two weeks ago and left early, knowing I’d ‘catch him next time.
Why did I do that?
I made this because in times like these, I’ve found it helps to keep their memory alive if you keep doing the things they did. If you respected something about someone who is gone, do them the ultimate honor and start doing it in your own life. That way, it will not end with them.
The more I have listened and read about Nipsey, I have realized how many lessons he had and has for all of us. I needed to talk about them here and share what I found with all of you. Rest in Power Nipsey, and thank you for everything you did while you were here and the impact you continue to have.
First Off Rest in peace to Nipsey Hussle this is ridiculous and before I get started on this video that will inspire you and tell you things you probably didn’t even know.
So to honor him passing away I want to show you the good things he has done and things I truly believe every independent artist with big dreams could and should do for themselves.
I wanna tell you a crazy story first.
I have a radio show on Dash with one of my good friends Clinton Sparks. Clinton was interviewing Nipsey Hussle just 2 weeks ago and told me to come thru and meet him and take a picture. So I did, I went over there but Clinton had told me the wrong time so I came after the doors were already locked so I sat outside and waited.
But it was FREEZING so after an hour I left and said it’s okay I’ll he’s around all the time I’ll meet him next time.
That’s crazy to me. But what’s more crazy in this situation is. As I stood outside the Dash Studio There were 2 police outside as we left.
My tour manager Chris was with me and he even said this is really weird why are there police here instead of personal security.
I don’t want to draw any conclusions but I’ve never seen police there like that. And they weren’t there in response to a call, they were just waiting outside the entrance clearly to protect him. To me this feels like he knew something like this was coming, maybe he had recently had death threats.
It’s strange that there is security that much there because it’s not a public place, it’s a place in an alley way that you don’t even know is there unless you are in the industry. It’s not like there were crowds of people… It literally just me, my tour manager, Nipsey’s son and his daughter and one of his guys outside with us.
Either way I’m actually upset I didn’t wait a little longer to meet him before this happened.
This video is dedicated to Nipsey and I is for every up and coming independent artist to help you get inspired and learn from what he did from the ground up on his own. If he did it with his circumstances, you can too.
1) Learn your stuff so you don’t have to worry about others
I want you to watch this video real quick of Nipsey (You can see it above)
I always tell you that YOU should have your own home studio and learn how to record yourself so you don’t have to rely on other people.
He connected with Producers and brought them in on his ideas and his process so he was getting better but he wasn’t reliant on any ONE person except for himself.
There is a reason is was capable of being such a successful independent artist. Without this amount of Nipsey Hussle he couldn’t have made it to the level he was at and the levels he was going to take it too.
2) Building relationships and connections
Idk about you but my entire feed is full of people I know who have been in the studio with Nipsey Hussle and all have pictures with him. Everyone from top people to people who I didn’t even have any idea really knew him.
What this tells me is he was out there meeting and creating relationships his entire career WITH EVERYONE. Getting out there and shaking hands.
And all of these people had nothing but GOOD things to say about him.
And of course he has worked with people like Drake, YG, Kendrick lamar, 50 cent and the list goes on and on and on and on and on.
He also built relationships with fans and he didn’t think anyone was too small for him to connect too. That is how he built a HARD CORE fan base. I always tell you guys every person adds up.
3) He Read A LOT of books
I have told you guys numerous times that reading books is very important to being able to grow
I’ve been telling you to read Contagious since the book came out. And if you have ever heard about the $100 mixtape idea that Nipsey used back when he released Crenshaw, it actually came from the $100 philly cheese steak idea that is talked about in that book.
This is proof he read books and more importantly it is proof that books can provide A LOT of value to a rapper even though most rappers would tell you books are stupid.
This was an album that downloadable for FREE but the physical copy was $100. A FREE project he only sold 1000 copies of and Jay Z bought 100 of… he made $100,000 off of a FREE project all from 1 idea in a book.
Imagine how many things you’d learn if you had read 100s of books.
I have a list of A LOT of books I have read and HIGHLY recommend I’ll put that link below for you. It will change your life and if you never wanted to read books when I recommended them to you as a rapper, well now maybe you’ll go check out the books I have told you changed my life for the longest time.
See all the books I have read here
4) Promoting yourself as an independent artist
He was all about grassroots building your fan base. He KNEW 1 person at a time would build up and create a fan base of millions of people like he eventually had.
People would tell him his small promotion ideas like going to high schools and middle schools and handing out his music wouldn’t work but he did it anyways.
He knew people added up.
One time he handed his mixtape to game and told him don’t frisby my CD man just give me a ear. Then The Game ended up taking Nipsey Hussle on tour with him.
5) He represented what it truly meant to be an independent artist
He made 10 mixtapes before he ever even released an album
He made songs with future and Cardi B and he thought they were pandering to a specific audience so he didn’t’ even put them on the album because he didn’t feel like it fit.
Now that says A LOT because he could have put those songs on the project and possibly sold more of the album or got more buzz on the project but he kept it true to himself. I respect the heck out of this.
I hope this video inspired and motivated you! Be sure to subscribe to the Smart Rapper YouTube Channel and Follow me On IG because I release stuff like this on a regular basis.