Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Please Don’t Turn Nipsey Hussle into a Savior.

April 16, 2019 by  
Filed under Ent., Money, Music, News, Opinion, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) My heart goes out to the family of Nipsey Hussle, to his fans, his community, and the millions of lives impacted by his words, and community upliftment. It is heartbreaking when another black man leaves this earth in such a violent manner, and definitely too soon. One can only wonder how much more work he would have accomplished, or the peace he could have helped bring to pass in the area of gang violence. It says a lot when even police officers mourn his passing because he wanted to help bring about positive change. His work earned him the honor he is receiving. Hopefully his passing will further move our people to continue to fight for one another instead of against one another. With that being said it is important that we don’t make a mockery of him disguised as morning, honor, or respect.

Lately I’ve seen paintings, and pictures of Nipsey Hussle with a crown of thorns on his head, and other imagery that is more than merely an angel. This is when it seemed that we had gone too far. Yes, he has done some great work but he isn’t the only one working hard in our communities. Many of us know brothers and sisters that are working hard in the community everyday and they have been doing it all of their life. Admitting this isn’t speaking ill of the dead, but it does put everything in perspective. Nipsey Hussle’s legacy is important but he wasn’t our Savior or Messiah. To be clear on the matter neither were other great artists that we love and have put on a level of worship.

Why is it that when we lose a celebrity we tend to enter into a kind of worship of that individual. In that moment no one has done or could do what they did. That is not the case at all especially when it comes to activism and work amongst our people. It is one thing to be inspired but the life of someone we have lost, but once we enter into a worship of them, we run the risk of changing the narrative of who they were. We forget they could not accomplish their work alone, and they needed a community as much as the community needed them. We forget that in honoring them we continue to move forward, but often times worship doesn’t equate to continuing the work. Furthermore, for some of us its simply blasphemous. They were a human being just as we are, and if we did not know them personally why are we worshipping the person. This happens too often in our community when a celebrity passes one. Its’ time we address the celebrity worship which is not honor.

When we allow ourselves to enter into this sort of blind worship, we leave ourselves open to others capitalizing on this state of being. There are several people, that are not us, making shirts and painting this religious symbolism that are literally making money off this worship state. Many of us believe we are buying black however; the vendors are not black at all. How does this benefit our community?

How do we justify this behavior to ourselves? There are people online selling tickets in excess of $500.00 to an event that is free to the public. Why would they think someone would pay that amount of money, or any money, to attend a memorial? Maybe they know someone will pay it because its not about honoring a life but worshiping a legacy which can be dangerous to a community. Our people can come together to celebrate the life and work of Nipsey Hussle, and we can continue to be inspired by that life without making a God of him.

Staff Writer; Chelle’ St James

May also connect with this sister via Twitter; ChelleStJames.

 


Comments

2 Responses to “Please Don’t Turn Nipsey Hussle into a Savior.”
  1. Nathan says:

    While you make some great points, I think you may have missed what Nipsey meant to a lot of young people. I am not familiar with him and had heard of him a few times prior to his demise but the response from his murder, caused me to do some digging. And what I see is not so much about Nipsey himself, a lot of young Black men see themselves in Nipsey from the stand point that he did it the non-traditional way. He wasn’t MLK or Malcolm. He wasn’t even Colin Kaepernick. He was a gang member who had a talent and he ‘finessed’ (as the young people say) that talent into where he is today. A celebrity, an entrepreneur and more. But what also stands apart from Nipsey is he stayed true to who he was. He wasn’t a college educated person, neither are his parents. He didn’t make it in TV like Drake or movies like Icecube and then give back. He took what he had and invested it in the community. So to some it is like he took two fishes and five loaves of bread and fed 5000 people. It was the idea and the mindset of Nipsey that people adore and idolize. He remained humble and committed to the people that he sees everyday. That made him unique and unfortunately it cost him his life. So many talented young people can’t even see themselves doing something like this website. Nipsey was saying to them yes you can and you will because I will help you do it and be successful at it. He did this type of thing everyday as a celebrity from what I understand. Again that’s rare because even most rappers talk about money, cars, houses, jewelry, etc. Nipsey rapped about nice things but also about reality for most POC. Again that made him unique to the point that Jay Z wanted one of his limited edition mix tapes early in his career. Just a few thoughts on why Nipsey was a Neo-Savior because we all know that aint nobody coming to save us but us. It’s been 400 years and a lot has gotten better but there’s still a long long long way to go.

  2. Ecelebmirror says:

    Rest in Peace
    One of the best rapper and most helpful person in world

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