Nipsey Hussle Funeral- Live Updates

Nipsey Hussle Funeral: Live Updates

The Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles was packed Thursday with thousands of mourners for the funeral of Nipsey Hussle, the Grammy-nominated rapper who was shot and killed in South Los Angeles, the same neighborhood where he grew up and was seen as a hero. The memorial is billed as a “celebration of life” and began at 11 a.m. local time, an hour later than scheduled. The arena holds 21,000 people and was also the venue for Michael Jackson’s public memorial in 2009. A procession will follow the two-hour memorial, snaking through Watts, Inglewood and South Los Angeles, passing by the Marathon Clothing store that Mr. Hussle owned and where he was killed last month.

Music filled the Staples Center as mourners from across the city came to honor the local hero.

 LOS ANGELES — The service began with a live band playing “Right Hand 2 God,” one of Hussle’s songs. His voice boomed across the arena, and thousands of fans sprang to their feet to sing along, the bass from the speakers shaking the ground, giving the event the feel of a concert. “This is a celebration.

The marathon continues,” DJ Battlecat shouted over the loudspeaker.

The coffin, adorned with white and violet flowers, sat center stage. Three large photographs of Hussle were projected overhead on oversized television panels, rendered in hues of pink and blue. A thick wall of flowers, a piano and a harp on stage softened the atmosphere in the cavernous sports arena. Before the service began, “Victory Lap,” the title track from Hussle’s Grammy-nominated album, played on loop as people sang along. The bound, glossy booklet handed out at the beginning of the service featured messages from Hussle’s family, hip-hop luminaries, public figures with ties to South Los Angeles and other prominent African Americans in the arts. President Barack Obama sent a letter praising Hussle, which Karen Civil, a hip-hop media personality, read at the service. Mr. Obama said that he had heard Hussle’s music through his daughters.more