The Los Angeles Police Department has been quietly investing Nipsey Hussle's businesses for gang ties. This is the same department that hailed him as a peacemaker.
An expose by The New York Times revealed the LAPD’s surveillance of the late rapper and his businesses. The probe was allegedly prompted by concerns about the presence of gangs around the strip mall owned by Hussle, which houses his clothing store.
An LAPD spokesperson confirmed the department was working with Nip’s business partners to “mitigate some of those crime issues,” but did not go into detail. Hussle was open about his past as a member of the Rollin' 60s Crips and was scheduled to meet with the LAPD the day after his death.
The “Racks In The Middle” rapper’s March 31 death helped broker peace between rival gangs. As Blavity previously reported, Compton’s Swamp Crips and the Campanella Park Pirus Bloods negotiated a ceasefire to honor Nip in late June.
“A lot occurred, and we can’t heal that fast,” Swamp Crip Lamar “Crocodile” Robinson told the Los Angeles Times. “But it’s important for us to take the initiative and school the youngsters on what’s at stake and what they can gain.”
During the rapper’s funeral, his brother Samiel Asghedom shared Hussle’s businesses were almost evicted from the strip mall by the city.
“I don’t know if anybody knows, but we had a 30-day notice and they were kicking us out of all the businesses we owned in the lot,” Asghedom recounted. When their landlords offered to sell it for $2.5 million, Nip jumped on it.
“I honestly don’t know how we did it, but we were able to close and get the lot,” he continued. “And Nip was so proud of that.”
It is unclear if a specific incident prompted the investigation, but it is ongoing.
