A long-awaited docuseries about the life of late hip-hop star Nipsey Hussle may finally be released next year. The filmmakers behind the series say the interviews, music and footage are all in place — now they’re on the hunt for a network or streaming home. Director One9, who was behind the recent three part Prime Video doc “Allen Iv3rson,” says the tentatively titled “Hussle” will have between five and seven episodes, and will be narrated posthumously by Hussle along with his brother, Blacc Sam.
The Grammy-winning Hussle (real name Ermias Asghedom), who became a respected figure for both his music career and his community outreach (which included investing in Crenshaw’s commercial district), was killed outside his clothing shop in 2019. He was just 33, and his death continues to reverberate in South-Central L.A. and the wider Southern California region — where tribute murals depicting the performer are commonplace.
“We’ve been working on it for several years, and making sure that it’s told the right way,” One9 says. “You talk about one of the most inspirational figures out there, who was a highly gifted child building his own computers to burn CDs and get his music out there.”
Fueling the multipart doc, One9 says, is a trove of footage he’s sifting through as he assembles the episodes. “Nipsey had the foresight to videotape everything in his life,” the director says. “Even when he was young, his father videotaped everything. You see the whole transformation of a young man coming of age, going through the iterations of childhood to gang life to independence to music to finding his own voice — and then becoming such a huge inspirational figure to the Crenshaw culture and environment.”
The footage includes the first time Hussle went into the studio at age 12. He also recorded an unreleased audio book, parts of which will supplement the voice-over narration. And the series will feature never before-heard music from the vault.
Blacc Sam — aka Samiel Asghedom — has been instrumental in gaining the participation of Hussle’s family, One9 says: “Sam’s learning more about Nipsey’s life from just watching the archival [footage]. … It’s really the story of those two brothers and how they navigated their lives.”
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