If you impact 100 people in your life that would be something to be proud of.
Imagining impacting 41k in six years. 41k people from a community where opportunities are very limited and hope is in short supply.
That is what Nipsey Hussle did and he planned to do a lot more via Art Party.
Born Ermias Joseph Asghedom, the diagram above reveals how Nipsey’s hustle has impacted the economy on both a local and national level. Using a combination of government and business data sources, I estimated Nipsey’s distribution of wealth across six sectors: Entertainment, Tech, Real Estate, Philanthropy, Food and Lifestyle. My analysis led me to calculating two main figures: The number of people Nipsey has either hired or impacted (41, 369) and the projected value of investments made between 2013 and 2019 ($210, 413, 500).
Nipsey had big dreams and even bigger plans. The Grammy-nominated artist and his business partners were set to launch a range of ventures including a network of franchises with retail headquarters in L.A., which is partly why he purchased a commercial strip earlier this year in Crenshaw. The plaza is known for housing several businesses owned by Nipsey like The Marathon Clothing Store and a restaurant. However, Nipsey was planning to do much more.
Alongside David Gross, the 33-year-old entrepreneur co-founded Our Opportunity, an investment coalition. The organization aims to develop high-quality, affordable mixed-use properties across multiple cities, pairing local stars with investors. The first property to kick off their venture was supposed to be a six-story residential unit built above the very same plaza he purchased and was subsequently killed in front of. The partnership with David Gross (also a black man), reflects Nipsey’s dedication to creating and sustaining black wealth in industries where minorities have traditionally been excluded, like land ownership and technology.
The numbers I compiled paint a picture of a man who was utterly obsessed with giving back. Within a very short stretch of time, Nipsey opened a STEM academy and co-working space in south L.A. with goals to expand across three more cities including Atlanta and D.C.
The data visualization highlights all of Nipsey’s documented business ventures and donations, including those that are lesser known, like his partnership with Vezt, a music streaming app which allows users to directly purchase the rights to songs using blockchain technology. Nipsey also had cryptocurrency investments and an ownership stake in at least two other technology companies.
Ultimately, my projections are just that: projections. The numbers are estimations based on public records, industry white papers, U.S. census data, and business association statistics. They are meant to give us all a numerical idea of how much Nipsey cared for his community and our world.
Reported figures like his $10,000 donation (in partnership with Puma) to 59th Street School were used alongside estimations provided by several sources like the U.S. Bureau Labor of Statistics. For example, Nipsey played a huge role in the formation of Destination Crenshaw, a public art space opening in 2020. According to census data, the Crenshaw/Baldwin Hills area of L.A. has about 36, 753 residents. So as a projection, I included those residents to the total number of people impacted or hired by Nipsey.
It makes his death even harder to process because you know this was just the beginning and he had so much more planned.
Hopefully, there are people who will pick up his vision and follow it through.
Flip the page for the full chart on everything he had his hands into.