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Block Party: Hip Hop’s 50th Birthday Jam
Aug 11, 2023 @ 12:00 pm
On March 31st, 2019, Nipsey Hussle’s life was tragically cut short. While he had been rapping for years at that point, his career took off with the 2018 release of his double-platinum album, ‘Victory Lap.’
Nipsey Hussle’s legacy transcends music, embodying innovation, resilience, and community empowerment. From his groundbreaking $100 mixtape, ‘Crenshaw,’ to his entrepreneurial spirit with The Marathon Clothing, Nipsey redefined what it meant to be a self-made artist. His “PROUD 2 PAY” campaign wasn’t just a marketing strategy but a cultural statement.
While fans across the world felt pain that fateful day in 2019, nobody felt it more than Hussle’s brother and business partner, Blacc Sam.
In this rare conversation for The Hip Hop Museum, I spoke with Blacc Sam about the creation of The Marathon brand, Sam watching the “Hussle In The House” video for the first time from prison, forthcoming unreleased Nipsey Hussle music, his brother’s genius mind, forthcoming initiatives for The Neighborhood Nip Foundation, and much more.
Adam Aziz: I want to start by going back to when Nipsey dropped the $100 ‘Crenshaw’ album – the one that Jay-Z bought a hundred copies of. How did that all actually go down?
Blacc Sam: Hussle’s vision was dropping the mixtape and creating the “PROUD 2 PAY” campaign around it. I didn’t fully understand it. The team was trying to, you know, get the direction from Nip, like, what are you thinking? And when he’s like, I want to charge $100 for the album, me personally, I was like, bro, what? Are you crazy? A hundred dollars? What’s going on? Like, are you sure? He’s like, yeah, trust me, bro. The book ‘Contagious’ is the inspiration. You should read it he would tell us. He was educating me and the rest of the team. There was a story about a hundred-dollar Philly cheesesteak. And it was just the craze that it created. Everybody was talking about it. Oprah talked about it. He was like, I want to do the same thing. And we were like, alright, we’re gonna follow your lead.
And naturally, I’m like, all right, well, shit, if you’re selling for a hundred dollars, we need to have it come with a hat, a free shirt. And Nip is like, nah, nothing. It’s the CD. We’re like, what? Are you sure? Well, how are we going to incentivize? And Nip said if they want to spend a hundred and they’re proud to pay, that’s the campaign, and this is what the CD costs.
When it dropped and went crazy, myself and the whole team were like, “This guy did it again.” Hussle had the sales attached to his phone and every time it got an order, it would ping, and it was just going crazy.
AA: What did it mean to have Jay-Z buy those hundred copies of the ‘Crenshaw’ album?
Blacc Sam: It was big because Jay is one of the big dogs that we looked up to when we were trying to get into music and create a label. Hussle, as a student of the game, respected him musically and business-wise. So 100% when we found out that Jay had supported and bought those, that was a stamp of like, okay, you’re in the right direction and even kind of like a salute, like, you know, somebody that has a track record of doing things that are super, super high level is tilting the hat and saying I see what y’all are doing.
AA: Following the success of the ‘PROUD 2 PAY’ campaign, were you surprised no other artists jacked the idea?
Blacc Sam: I think people see it work and how he did it. I’ve heard a lot of people pay homage and say it was like the first NFT. People bought it and had access to a special experience that only people who bought it had. I see people on social media saying that Hussle had the first NFT and was doing this a long time ago.
AA: I wanted to ask you about the Marathon brand and the importance of the racing flag. What’s the true meaning behind that for you, the team and Nip?
Blacc Sam: I think the concept, especially once I was introduced to the idea from Hussle and JP, it’s a genius idea, the Marathon, the journey. It’s every day, it’s small steps. And, you know, eventually getting to the goal. And, you know, the checker flags are like the final lap for me. And it’s like you finally are close to your goal. Not being afraid to understand that you got to pick a pace in life. It may take struggle and a long time, but you have to be willing to put the time in and, you know, not look for quick achievement. Like Hussle says, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. That concept can be received by so many different people, different walks of life, different demographics, somebody working, somebody in school, somebody creating, doing music or having an idea, trying to bring the idea to life.
Hussle’s goal was to inspire people, and I think that was one of the things that he was pivotal about doing, not only through the music but also through the message and the brand that he created—The Marathon.
AA: The ‘Crenshaw’ hoodies and t-shirts are iconic. Going back to the inception of that, were you intending for those to stay local? Were you surprised when people started rocking them globally?
Blacc Sam: I first saw Nip’s video for ‘Hussle In The House’ when I was in prison. I was on my way home and had six months left, so I was communicating and was happy bro was doing good. I had never seen the music video and they let us see the music video. Everybody was standing on the floor in the middle of the night, watching the music video. It was in a 200-man dorm. Nobody was lying down. The riot team came in thinking there was about to be a riot because at nighttime there is usually only about ten people in the day room but the whole unit was up standing. People yelling like bro is on TV. Hussle had on the blue Crenshaw crewneck, and everybody in the video had their own blue Crenshaw crew neck on. The video was epic. You could hear a pin drop in there. They were like man, that’s crazy. That’s your neighborhood. That’s where you guys from. After that, the sweater was iconic, as you say.
I remember getting home and trying to figure out where I could add value, trying to help Hussle with the music and figuring out what my lane would be. I remember my cousin Adam talking to us and saying, “Nip, I’m on your MySpace responding to questions, and every question asks where people can buy the crewneck.” And then a light bulb hit me like we making them. So me, and the team went and spent the last of our money going broke on these blue Crenshaw crewnecks, and then we developed a hoodie. And we had thousands of pieces of every size and were outside on the tables. We were going to all of Hussle’s shows, and Hussle was wearing them in all the videos, and then he had custom colors, and he started having these custom beanies, and then we did the hats and the shirts, and then it just took off like a wildfire.
And then Hussle came up with the genius idea that this doesn’t need to be Crenshaw clothing. Yes, this is an iconic place, but the brand needs to be bigger. The brand needs to be The Marathon Clothing. The brand opens it up to the world. Some people from Oakland don’t want to wear a Crenshaw hoodie. But now it’s Marathon Clothing. And the idea was also everything has a Marathon Clothing tag on it. And then Hussle put in his music: if the tag ain’t Marathon, that Crenshaw crew neck is a knockoff. And from there, it was genius because everybody was like, oh, that’s the fake one. That’s not the real one. You got to buy the real one. And just another genius move from Hussle. And that gave birth to The Marathon Clothing.
AA: I know some unreleased Hussle music has trickled out over the past while, but is there more unreleased music from Nip? And when might we get to hear it?
Blacc Sam: Yep. There’s a lot, man. A lot of unreleased music. Full bodies of work. Classics. Complete songs. Features that he did with people that nobody’s heard. We wanted to make sure that, number one, we didn’t rush anything and do anything, you know, not tasteful as the family, and we made sure that we put the energy towards the documentary coming out soon. And when the documentary is ready to come out, we go and put together a soundtrack to the documentary with many of these unreleased records and not try to compile a new album that he didn’t compile. Hussle’s album is ‘Victory Lap’; anything else is an unreleased record.
There’s a lot of time difference in some of these records. Some were done when he was young, still classic, but then some were done when he was much older, so you can hear the difference in the voice. I think it’s more fitting that it goes to the soundtrack of the documentary, which in the doc goes through his younger days and his older days, so you’ll be able to put these songs on and plug and play when these songs were created. The documentary is almost done. It’s going to be nine episodes. We should be finishing it by the end of this year.
And then there’s another project that he actually worked on…I don’t know if we want to, but we probably could. This is the perfect time. It’s with him and Bino. There was a second project he did with Bino. We’re putting that together and trying to figure out when we release it.
AA: I watched your interview with Big Boy from last year about the day Nip died. Personally speaking, that day felt like a gut punch. Nip meant so much to me as an artist from afar. Without rehashing that day, please talk to me about the real loss people felt that day and the pain felt by people who didn’t know him personally. Why do you think he connected with so many people the world over?
Blacc Sam: When you go back and look at the integrity and the story, who is this person? Culture follows the grassroots, and culture follows the streets. So when you see the streets rally behind somebody on such a high level, at the top, you know, you’re looking down like, hold on, what’s going on? Who is this person? When you start hearing what the lowest level of the streets are saying about this person, you realize this was a prince. Oh, this was somebody who, number one, inspired the so-called uninspirable. Nobody can do that. Nobody even attempts to do that. So when you have somebody who is not only doing that but has attempted to do that, that resonates. When you educate yourself, start listening to interviews and start seeing, and then it hits. And then, as you say, you’re not only paying homage, you’re mesmerized, appreciative, and saluting. On a high level, this is what happened.
To this point, his whole goal, and I think when people really see the documentary, they’ll understand it even more. His whole goal was to inspire. So that’s what he did. On multiple levels, even to being on Crenshaw and Slauson and having a story there and to what happened, the goal was to inspire and, number one, inspire the people that are not easily inspired. And that’s what he did. From that level, he inspired the whole world and is still inspiring. And the message, the message is stronger. You know, it’s just getting stronger and stronger. And having conversations with him and, you know, me personally, man, we got to get the business and the money right. And he would say, we’re going to get the money, bro, but my shit is not about that. I’ve got to be inspirational.
AA: Nip and the team always made very smart moves. Whether it was The Marathon Clothing or STEM education or the way you released music – what do you attribute the success of this very strategic approach to?
Blacc Sam: Hussle wasn’t scared to try new things. Hussle always moved from his feelings and also moved from his heart. And he was not afraid to do the work. He was very sharp, and he educated himself in whatever he wanted to do. It’s just about being prepared and having faith and understanding that it’s not gonna happen overnight. And naturally, you have a business venture, an idea, and educate yourself on it. And, you know, you get the team together, and we figure it out. And if it works, we throw a little bit at it. If it sticks, we scale. If not, we move to the next. And you don’t put everything in one basket. And that’s what Hussle did. That’s what the team did. And we have a strong team, too, man. We have a strong team. Everybody comes from their backgrounds. Everybody’s had to get it from the mud and had to really put things together that worked. And if not, if it doesn’t work, you know, there’s no parachute, or there’s nothing saving you. So from that mentality, we’ve been blessed and we’ve been able to continue successfully.
AA: Hussle’s music was always so vivid – the same as greats like ‘Pac, B.I.G., and Nas. What do you remember about when Nip first started rapping? Could you see where he would take it?
Blacc Sam: When Hussle started making music, he built his own computer, and he used to take parts, computer parts from school and bring them home one by one in our bedroom. We shared the bedroom; he used to have computer parts on the floor. I was older. So I used to be, hey man, we got to clean the room up, get all this junk, get all this junk out of here. What’s going on? And he’s like, I’m about to build a computer. What? A computer? This is not possible. But he did build it. He built a computer; he started recording himself. He taught himself how to record on that computer.
He was going to a program in Watts where they would teach him how to make beats and record. So he mimicked it and was doing it at the house. And the first music I heard, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it to the point where he made me think it was easy. So I started trying to write something and start to record. I was in that bedroom for about seven days, pulling my hair out, throwing shit in the trash, rewriting, rewriting. And then I just said, All right, this is not for me. That’s when I knew he was super talented.
AA: One of the most important initiatives is the Neighborhood Nip Foundation and all the incredible work you’ve done in the community over the years. What are some of the most important things the Foundation is working on right now?
Blacc Sam: The team has been going back and forth on what we can do on Crenshaw and Slauson at the site of the original Marathon store. There is no way we could go back to selling clothing there. And we were like, this lot needs to be the Foundation. We want to run it like a Boys & Girls Club. One of the main things is to put a studio in there. So we’re building a brand new, state-of-the-art studio and presenting the same opportunities that were presented to Hussle. When he was younger, at the Watts Towers, there was a free program that he used to go to, and they would teach the kids how to record themselves and make beats and all the kids that were part of that program – every last one of them, when they became older pursued music successfully. Hussle would always say man, a little goes a long way. And, you know, the team felt confident like this is what this location needs to be. And we’re working on getting the doors open this year. We also want to bring in the STEM education programs, and kids will need to complete an hour or two of studying educational programs, giving them an hour or two to access the studio.
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