Real is rare in Los Angeles, in hip-hop and worldwide. It’s why we gravitate toward storytellers who speak their truth with both conviction and earnestness; it’s why we gravitate toward artists who live the words they rap with an insurmountable resilience.

For more than a decade, real has been why hip-hop fans gravitated toward Nipsey Hussle — a bonafide hustler who not only had enough drive to win the marathon, but to pause along the way and give others in the race the tools to do so as well.