Rapper Ermias Davidson Ashedom, better known by his stage name Nipsey Hussle, has died after being shot multiple times outside his store in the Hyde Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles. He was 33.
According to NBC, Ashedom was shot multiple times and then transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. No suspects have been detained, Mike Lopez of the LAPD told NBC.
The shooting, which injured two others and killed at least one, took place outside the Marathon Clothing Company which Ashedom opened in 2017.
Just hours earlier, Hussle had tweeted: "Having strong enemies is a blessing."
Collaborations
Born in 1985 and raised in Los Angeles, Ashedom has long been part of the underground rap circuit. He struggled to find fame but began selling his own mixtapes, which hip-hop royalty Jay-Z once bought 100 of for $100 each.
He was nominated for Best Rap Album for "Victory Lap," his first formal album that finally dropped last February after six years of teasing, but lost out to rap's woman of the moment Cardi B.
Ashedom released his first mixtape Slauson Boy Volume 1 in 2005 and followed with two more, Bullets Ain't Got No Name volumes 1 and 2, in 2008.
He signed with Epic Records that year, although an album he reportedly completed for the label South Central State of Mind was never released and he left the label in 2010.
In the following years he collaborated with Drake on the song Killer as well as Snoop Dogg on the song Upside Down.
He continued to release mixtapes over the years, collaborating with Rick Ross, YG, DJ Mustard and many others. In 2016 he released a song with YG about the presidential election called FDT.
He signed with Atlantic the following year and released Victory Lap earlier in 2018.
He has a child with actress Lauren London and the pair appeared in a GQ magazine profile last month.
