April 09, 2020
By Lapacazo Sandoval
Contributing Writer
Tayarisha Poe’s first feature film — that she wrote and directed—“Selah and The Spades” will debut on Amazon Prime, April 17th and that’s a very big deal.
Why? Haven’t you heard? It’s a Herculean task for a young, African American woman to get an opportunity to live her bliss. And Poe’s bliss is being a filmmaker, a writer-director and one that can make a living doing just that.
It's 2020, and the delightful, upbeat and funny Poe began the process when she was 21. She's just thirty now a baby really with so much ahead of her and that’s exciting for her and us. Why? Well, because Tayarisha Poe is talented period, end of sentence.
And she’s funny. Wait. I mentioned that and her sense of humor (dark) and her strong sense of character is evident in “Selah and The Spades.”
Here’s the story. In the closed world of an elite Pennsylvania boarding school, Haldwell, the student body is run by five factions. Seventeen-year-old Selah Summers (Lovie Simone) runs the most dominant group, the Spades, with unshakable poise, as they cater to the most classic of vices and supply students with coveted, illegal alcohol and pills.
Tensions between the factions escalate, and when Selah’s best friend/right hand Maxxie (Jharrel Jerome) becomes distracted by a new love, Selah takes on a protégée, enamored sophomore Paloma (Celeste O'Connor), to whom she imparts her wisdom on ruling the school. But with graduation looming and Paloma proving an impressively quick study, Selah’s fears turn sinister as she grapples with losing the control by which she defines herself.
My new best friend aka Tayarisha Poe considers herself essentially a storyteller. We both grew up in Philadelphia, a place I hate (with my whole soul) and a place she loves with her whole soul. To be specific she’s a West Philly girl and takes all of the lessons she learned there “we get things done” with her on her journey. Her tenacity works. Poe was chosen as one of the "25 new faces of the independent film" by Filmmaker magazine in 2015, and in 2016 she received the Sundance Institute’s Knight Foundation Fellowship. In 2017 she was selected for the January Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the June Sundance Directors Lab. She is a 2017 Pew Fellow.
It was her experience at the Sundance writer and then the director lab that helped Poe put everything together. “They teach you the value of failing,” shared Poe when remembering the experience in shaping “Selah and The Spades,” “You have to give yourself the room grow. That’s an important lesson that I learned.”
Here is what writer/director Tayarisha Poe wants you to know about her first film “Selah and the Spades” that will debut on Amazon Prime, April 17, 2020.
L.A. WATTS TIMES: I am so proud of you, my new best friend. First, how did this project originate?
TAYARISHA POE: I made an overture to ‘Selah and the Spades,’ called ‘Overture,’ in 2014, knowing I eventually wanted to make a feature. But I didn't know how to write a feature script, and I didn't know what it would be about, so I wrote short stories about the characters and their world — one every day for the month of November 2014. At the end of the month, I had all these stories. Since I knew how to write and take photos, I turned the stories into separate multimedia works. It's not the most conventional approach to making a movie but it worked for the story because I wound up spending so much time world-building and thinking about the lives of these kids, which in the end made the feature itself so much more complex and rich.
LAWT: What was the inspiration for the story?
TP: After graduating from college in 2012 and starting a real job, I kept wanting to write characters that did whatever they wanted, who kept moving forward in life without overthinking things, or even thinking about them at all.
LAWT: At what point did you decide to make a gangster movie set in high school?
TP: From the project's inception; the first Selah story I wrote was about Selah watching from afar as Maxxie beats up this kid who owes them money. It was about this girl who doesn't get her hands dirty — she sends other people to do her dirty work. That's the kind of story I've always been drawn to.
LAWT: Who is Selah and how has she evolved over the years?
TP: She's a 17-year-old girl who's already well aware that her actions are constantly under review by others, but I'm still asking myself where that comes from. She's been around for a long time, but she's always been the character she is.
She's an amalgamation of the strong women I'm friends with, and sometimes see myself as — but it's less about who those women are than it is about how others perceive them. Selah was born out of this frustration of me knowing that if we're too headstrong or aggressive, I might be stereotyped as an aggressive black woman, so I spent a lot of time being chill and even-tempered. But it's exhausting to constantly be thinking about how other people are seeing you, so Selah was born of my frustration with that, combined with the notion of examining what life would be like if you didn't have to lean into the image of what you should be, or how you should act, or what you should be doing with your life, or your body, or your energy. Selah came out of those feelings, and she's evolved over the years into something deeper and more complex.
LAWT: This is a movie about power. What did you want to explore about power through this movie, or these characters?
TP: Power is an addictive thing, and I'm interested in the things people do to hold onto power, especially if you're a person who lacks power, like a woman for example. What will you do to hold onto power once you have it?
I'm interested in exploring that, because who doesn't want power? Who doesn't want to be able to do whatever they want and nobody can tell them otherwise — to me, that's a thrilling thing.
LAWT: What makes Selah powerful?
TP: People who are good at holding onto power tend to be those who are constantly competing against themselves, and I see that quality in Selah. That sort of constant competition is powerful unto itself — it's something I feel like I'm examining every day of my life, in everything I write.
LAWT: Describe the dynamic between Selah and Paloma.
TP: I wrote Selah and Paloma because I wanted to explore the relationships teenage girls have with one another, which are often more all-consuming than romantic relationships.
They can be stronger and more important than the relationships they have with teenage boys, who don't have a lot of substance at that age. I often feel like we don't have a language to talk about the depth of our relationships with our closest friends — it still feels like we put the importance of close friendships on the backburner to romantic relationships. When I wrote these characters, it was so obvious to me that this was a love story between two people, even though it's not about sex and romance. These are two people who are so passionate about each other they almost destroy themselves, and each other.
LAWT: All high schools are a hotbed of sexual expression but in your movie, it's also about organized criminal business. Please describe The Haldwell School in your own words.
TP: This is a heightened, fictional portrayal of what boarding school is. I started attending one beginning in tenth grade, and Haldwell isn't far off from my life there. You're living in a hermetic environment removed from your parents and family, and you get to make your own rules, you have your own little society.
LAWT: What was your inspiration for the five factions at Haldwell?
TP: They come from all the mafia and gangster movies I've ever seen, there's always someone who's betting on something, and who's responsible for throwing parties, or for getting drugs. And there's always a group like the prefects because somebody has to be responsible for making sure we get away with all this stuff. Imagine a bunch of kids who grew up watching The Godfather getting to a place where they have all this freedom; the first thing they're going to do is create their own system of order within that free world.
LAWT: Why did you want to cast Lovie Simone as Selah?
TP: She first auditioned for Paloma. If she played Selah, I worried that she looked so young that we would have to cast everyone else around her to look similar. But thankfully she was cast as Selah, it's the greatest thing that could have happened to this story. You look at her face in any scene and you see her go through all these emotions in a matter of seconds, you see them written across her face, and then you see her cover them up under this perfect smile.
She brought this very real teenage girl experience to the invaluable character — she's brilliant.
LAWT: It's also an effective ensemble. How did you manage to achieve group chemistry?
TP: Ironically, I took the actors aside and told them what kind of movie they were in — every single character in this movie is living in their own different kind of movie. Paloma is living in a romantic comedy, Selah is in ‘The Godfather,’ and Maxxie is in a Jane Austen movie like ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ I also gave everyone complex backstories, they all had reading assignments, short stories that inspired their characters. It also helped that we had the world of Haldwell containing them, this school identity everyone could latch onto and dive deep into. The actors would debate what their characters and factions might do in these hypothetical situations they came up with during downtime — it was like they were writing fan fiction as the story was happening.
LAWT: Describe the dynamic between Selah and her mother.
TP: Selah is someone who wants to hold onto the power she has at school, but she doesn't have that power when she's at home with her mother.
LAWT: What makes teenagers fascinating to you as subjects?
TP: I'm attracted to stories that treat teenagers and the emotional stuff they're going through seriously, giving them the weight that those things deserve. A lot of the stuff they're experiencing, like falling in love or hating somebody, or just the dramatic ups and downs of daily life is a first for them. When a teenager falls in love and then out of love, they feel like they're going to die, they genuinely don't know if they will survive this experience, because it's never happened before. I'm fascinated by the purity of emotion that exists in teenagers.
LAWT: What are you trying to say about humanity with this movie?
TP: I should qualify that in no way do I think that Selah is good or bad — and this applies to the other characters, I view them all as neutral and living in a grey area, which is why I love them because I believe in living in grey areas. But my biggest goal with the film springs out of that phrase sympathy for the devil — but for me, it's empathy for the devil. I want audiences to have empathy for people who are doing things in life they may disagree with.
LAWT: Any other things you would like your audience to take away from this movie.
TP: This one is specifically for black girls or people of color but I hope audiences will see people who look like them doing what they want to do — or being able to do whatever they want to do, which is important to me, in addition to having empathy for people who are doing what they want to do.
It's invigorating to see that on the screen, even if it's not something you would personally do. Hopefully, it will inspire others to do what they want to do in life.
LAWT: What’s next for you? I hope that you are writing a comedy? Or a horror? Or a horror-comedy? Spill the beans, Tayarisha Poe.
TP: (laughing) I can’t but I am writing.
“Selah and The Spades” on Amazon Prime, April 17th.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
April 02, 2020
By Mesfin Fekadu
AP Entertainment Writer
Oprah Winfrey says she's playing it safe when it comes to the rapidly spreading coronavirus.
The 66-year-old entertainment icon told The Associated Press on Friday that she has been quarantining and practicing social distancing at her home even if that means longtime partner Stedman Graham has to stay in the guest house.
“I have now-grown girls from South Africa here (but) Stedman's on lock down at the guest house. He's still there, asking: ‘When can I come? When can I come to the main house?’ He's still got, hmm, till Monday,” she said.
Earlier this week Winfrey posted a video of her talking to Graham as he poked his head outside of the guest house window.
She said he must stay in the guest house because he had been recently flying and they're trying to be safe.
“I'm getting ready to take him some food down there now for lunch. But I'm playing it as safe as I possibly can. Nobody goes out and nobody comes in,” she said.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
Winfrey has been busy working despite being stuck at home. She interviewed actor Idris Elba, who tested positive for the coronavirus, through FaceTime for an episode of “Oprah Talks: COVID-19” on Apple TV.
When asked about how she's continuing to do work from her home, she said: “What did we do before Zoom is what I'd like to know? How could we do it without Zoom? I don't even know.”
She also said she's enjoying the downtime: “Don't be hating because I'm having a really good time. I'm really OK in retreat from everyone. I'm really OK with it.”
April 02, 2020
Aries
MAR 21 - APR 19
It's possible you're finally going to get everything you ever wanted in the love department. Venus is still moving through your relationship sector and this always bodes well for your love life. If you're in a relationship already, then things are definitely moving in the right direction. On Saturday, Venus aligns with lucky Jupiter and powerful Pluto, both in your message sector. A romantic negotiation or conversation will go exactly as you hoped, perhaps even better. Another possibility is that if you're dating someone, the two of you will decide to become exclusive. Ask and ye shall receive!
Taurus
APR 20 - MAY 20
You've got the most stunning prospects for romance these days. Venus is still moving through your sign and will make a perfect connection to lucky Jupiter and intense Pluto on Saturday. This is nothing short of magical for you in every way possible, Taurus! Whatever you desire most seems possible, so don't shortchange yourself on those wishes. If you're in a relationship, then you are most certainly feeling the love from the one you adore. In fact, he or she might demonstrate their affection in a way that makes you know with all your heart that this person is "The One." Amazing!
Gemini
MAY 21 - JUN 20
A quiet love affair that no one else knows about might be the most delicious event happening in your world right now. This clandestine relationship of yours doesn't have to be scandalous, but it will most certainly be intensely erotic and sexually fulfilling. You don't have to be declaring your love for someone all over social media and the truth is, you don't want to. If someone has your heart, then you're feeling much happier keeping the lovefest between the two of you ... and behind closed doors. Yum!
Cancer
JUN 21 - JUL 22
If you're in a relationship, then you and your partner are in for some hot, steamy passion! Mars and Pluto will align in your relationship sector, adding all the sizzle to your love connection that you ever wanted. In fact, you might be surprised at the intensity your partner shows. He or she might not be able to keep their hands off you! Alternatively, if things haven't been going well in your love life, this could lead to an explosive argument. Tempers might flare but it all goes back to the level of desire you feel for each other. It's off the charts!
Leo
JUL 23 - AUG 22
If you're single, this is a week to pay attention to anyone you meet through work somehow. Whether you're in business for yourself or if you work for a company it doesn't matter -- the prospects for romance connected to your job are strong. You might even hire someone such as a plumber or electrician and find that there is strong mutual chemistry between the two of you. If this happens, you'll need to decide what's more important to you: dating each other or having this person do the job you need help with. It's not the worst problem to have.
Virgo
AUG 23 - SEP 22
Your love life might be too hot to handle this week! Mars and Pluto will collide in your romance sector on Monday, giving you a mouth-watering craving for someone special that you simply must enjoy. You're very likely to connect with someone who has hungry eyes for you, and you'll instantly feel the same. This relationship might become very close very quickly, but that doesn't mean it won't last. Still, an instant gratification vibe will be hard to ignore this week. Make sure you're OK with the potential for this to be an "easy come, easy go" type of scenario.
Libra
SEP 23 - OCT 22
With a potent New Moon landing in your partnership sector on Tuesday, you're bravely going in a new direction, Libra. This lunation is not for the faint of heart. If a change has been long overdue in matters of the heart, then this is the time to expect a jump-start that gets your love life moving. This does seem to be a good thing, though. Sometimes all you need is a little push to get you to do what you know you really wanted to do all along. Think of this lunar event as a dose of much-needed cosmic courage. Drink it up.
Scorpio
OCT 23 - NOV 21
It's possible you're finally going to get everything you ever wanted in the love department. Venus is still moving through your relationship sector and this always bodes well for your love life. If you're in a relationship already, then things are definitely moving in the right direction. On Saturday, Venus aligns with lucky Jupiter and powerful Pluto, both in your message sector. A romantic negotiation or conversation will go exactly as you hoped, perhaps even better. Another possibility is that if you're dating someone, the two of you will decide to become exclusive. Ask and ye shall receive!
Sagittarius
NOV 22 - DEC 21
You've got an exciting new beginning in matters of the heart. A New Moon lands in your true love sector on Tuesday, stimulating amazing potential between you and someone you'll find to be extremely dynamic, independent, and brave. This relationship might begin quickly and neither one of you will bother playing games. It'll be obvious that you want each other, and the passion will be off the charts! If you're already dating someone or in a relationship, it's possible you'll decide to have a child or declare your love for each other for the first time. Incredible!
Capricorn
DEC 22 - JAN 19
Your love life is no snoozefest these days. Venus is moving through your true love sector and recently received some stimulating vibes from Uranus, the planet of sudden change, also in the same part of your chart. It's as if a romantic opportunity was reignited out of the blue. This week, you're sure to benefit from this happy and most unexpected turn of events. As Venus moves to a perfect trine to expansive Jupiter and powerful Pluto -- both in your sign -- you can count on the fact that when it comes to love, you are the lucky one.
Aquarius
JAN 20 - FEB 18
Sometimes, we all get stuck in our minds and feel a bit insecure about voicing our feelings or our needs, especially if we're concerned it'll rattle the status quo. Fortunately, you're someone who typically isn't concerned with the opinions of others. In this case, however, you might have found yourself holding back your perspective from your partner or love interest because you knew it would likely create conflict before leading to resolution. This week, you'll stop worrying about that and will just put it all out there. You'll wonder why you waited so long.
Pisces
FEB 19 - MAR 20
A conversation with someone through social media might lead to a happy development in your love life. This can be anything from connecting to a friend on Facebook to someone sliding into your DMs on Instagram. Another possibility is that you'll try an online dating app out and actually have substantial luck finding someone you're genuinely compatible with. Be open! If you're already in a relationship, then you'll probably feel as if your lover truly "gets" you this week. Don't doubt it because it's true.
April 02, 2020
By Andrew Dalton
AP Entertainment Writer
Ermias Asghedom and Eric Holder both grew up in the same Los Angeles neighborhood, were both part of the gang known as the Rollin' 60s, and were both aspiring rappers. Asghedom, who went by the name Nipsey Hussle, would go on to become a hip-hop star, neighborhood legend and local hero. Holder's music never caught on. He went by the name Fly Mac, but everyone in his neighborhood knew him by his nickname, a profane moniker for excrement. On March 31, 2019, after Hussle calmly told Holder he was gaining a reputation as a "snitch," the 29-year-old Holder shot and killed the 33-year-old Hussle, according to police, prosecutors and witnesses. Holder has pleaded not guilty.
On the first anniversary of his death, here is a chronological look at the events that led up to Hussle's killing and events that followed, as revealed in court documents, other public records and events.
"OOH, THERE GOES NIPSEY HUSSLE"
Dec. 7, 2018
Hussle is nominated for a Grammy for best rap album for his major label debut, fittingly called "Victory Lap," a mainstream coronation for a man who had been an underground sensation in the Los Angeles rap scene for a decade. He has less than four months to live.
March 31, 2019
1:30 p.m. - Holder calls a woman he has known for about a month to see if she wants to get together and get something to eat. She works as a home health caregiver and as a driver for a ride-hailing service, meeting Holder when he was a paying passenger. Authorities have not revealed her name. She picks up Holder in her white Chevrolet Cruze and they meander slowly in her car toward South Los Angeles.
2:51 p.m. - Hussle arrives unannounced at his clothing store, The Marathon, as he did three or four days a week, often after dropping off his 2-year-old son or his 10-year-old daughter. The store at the intersection of Crenshaw and Slauson is the center of neighborhood life. It is also the center of Hussle's plan to remake and revive the area where he grew up in an attempt to break the cycle of gang life that lured him in when he was younger. Hussle had recently bought the entire shopping center, where he once sold his mix CDs from the trunk of his car, planning to turn it into a mixed-use residential and commercial center. He spends nearly 30 minutes in the lot signing autographs, talking to old friends, taking selfies with fans, as he often did. He never makes it inside the store.
3:04 p.m. - Holder and the woman, driving mostly aimlessly looking for something to eat, pull into the shopping plaza at Crenshaw and Slauson at Holder's behest. There is no evidence he intends to go there or knows Hussle will be there. As the woman is parking, she spots the rapper. "I was like, 'Ooh, there goes Nipsey Hussle, he look fine," she would later remember saying. "I want to take a picture.'" She doesn't know Holder knows Hussle. Holder walks into a burger place in the complex, orders chili cheese fries, and steps outside to wait. Hussle spots Holder. "Is that Shi(asterisk)(asterisk)y?" he asks a friend.
"YOU NEED TO ADDRESS IT"
3:07 p.m. - Kerry Lathan, 56, and his nephew Shermi Villanueva arrive in the parking lot headed to The Marathon. Villanueva had told Lathan he needed a lot more new clothes since he had been wearing the same things in the months since he was released on parole from prison for a murder conviction. Hussle had sent Lathan a care package after his release, as he did for many ex-convicts from his neighborhood as they re-entered the outside world. Lathan had met Hussle once before and is pleased to see him.
3:09 p.m. - Holder, who is shirtless, showing the large tattoo that reads "SIXTIES" across his stomach, and the woman walk over to Hussle. The rapper tells Holder that word on the street is he has been "snitching," according to the grand jury testimony of Hussle's friend and employee Herman Douglas, who is standing next to him. Douglas hears Hussle tell Holder there are rumors he has been talking to authorities about the Rollin' 60s gang, and that police documents or court records show it. "You need to address it," Hussle says, according to Douglas. "You know, basically telling the guy you need to be careful, you know, because people got some paperwork on you," Douglas testified, adding that Hussle was "more or less trying to look out for the dude." Holder responds that those talking about him have only been "hating on me." Holder asks if Nipsey or anyone around him had heard his new song, and all say no. The talk lasts about four minutes. All who hear it say no voices were raised, and no one seems heated, antagonistic or angry.
3:12 p.m. - Holder's companion walks up and takes a picture with the rapper, who is very friendly. She immediately posts it on Facebook with the caption, "Look at me, I'm with Nipsey Hussle." Holder goes back to the restaurant to pick up his order, the two pull out of the shopping center in her car, and Holder tells her to pull into an adjacent parking lot so he can eat. After taking a few bites of his fries, he stands up, takes out a 9 mm pistol, and loads it, she said. She later said she had often seen him with guns before, but had never seen him load one, according to court documents. Holder gets out of the car and tells her to wait. He heads back to the shopping center.
3:19 
p.m. - Holder walks up to Hussle and says "You're through," according to one witness, then opens fire with the pistol and a revolver, shooting Hussle at least 10 times. One shot hits his head. Another lodges in his lung. Another severs his spine, the LA County coroner would find. "You got me," a witness hears Hussle say as he falls to the ground. Holder kicks Hussle twice in the head and flees. Lathan and Villanueva, who had been standing next to Hussle, are both shot, but neither were critically injured.
3:20 p.m. - Holder returns to the car. "I asked him, 'what's going on? What's going on?" the woman later said. "He's like, 'Drive, drive, before I slap you.'" It's the first time he's ever been harsh with her. The woman had heard shots fired, but drives away with no understanding of what happened, she later said. "I just felt like I know there was a shooting going on," she said. "I didn't know if he was the shooter. I didn't know if he was getting shot at."
3:22 p.m. - Hussle's brother, Samiel Asghedom, arrives. Hussle is still breathing, and Samiel, under instructions from a 911 operator gives him CPR. "He was still breathing, you know, like biting his tongue a little bit, then he - he was just trying to fight it, trying to gain consciousness, and he was going out," Douglas later testified. "And he just kept - he just kept fighting." An ambulance arrives and takes Hussle away. It is not until he is lifted on to a stretcher that those around him realize he has been shot in the head.
3:55 p.m - Hussle is declared dead at a hospital.
"I DIDN'T KNOW THIS BOY WAS GONNA DO THIS"
About 4 p.m. - The woman drops Holder off at his cousin's house and returns to her mother's home, where she lives. She soon sees rumors on social media that Hussle has been shot and killed. People are amazed she had taken a selfie with him moments before, "My heart had dropped," she said.
About 8 p.m. - Holder calls the woman and asks her to pick him up. She brings him to her mother's house to spend the night. She later struggles to explain why she lets him come over, and why she doesn't bring up Hussle's killing. "I didn't want him to try to threaten me again or say anything to me about it," she said.
April 1, 2019
About 8 a.m. - Holder tells the woman he didn't want to go home because it was "dirty" and she helps him get a room at a nearby Motel 6.
8 p.m. - An impromptu memorial for Hussle that began the day before peaks with a crowd of hundreds at The Marathon store parking lot, lighting candles, playing Hussle's music, singing and dancing. Hussle's killing had come at a time of an uptick in violence in the neighborhood, and fear of a retaliatory shooting was heavy in the air when the crowd at one point hears gunfire and flees in a stampede that left 19 people injured. Two women had minor injuries from gunshots.
10:30 p.m. - After a long day of silence on the possibility of arrests or motive in the killing, Los Angeles police release the name and description of Holder, calling him a suspect, and giving a description and license plate number of the woman's Chevy Cruze.
11 p.m. - The woman sees the description of her car on the evening news. "Oh my God," she tells her mother. "My car is on here and everything, and I didn't do anything. I didn't know this boy was gonna do this."
April 2, 2020
7 a.m. - The woman and her mother go to the local police station to turn herself in. The front desk officer says "don't worry about it" and "don't listen to the news," court transcripts show. The LAPD later opened an internal investigation into why the woman was turned away at such a crucial time in the investigation and a detective in grand jury testimony said that the officer had missed a morning briefing. The woman leaves the station, returning later to speak to detectives after her mother called police again. She speaks to detectives for five hours. Police search her house, Holder's house, and a relative's house. They would not find the guns used in the shooting.
About 12:05 p.m. - A 911 call reports a man resembling Holder walking in the city of Bellflower, 17 miles southwest of the crime scene. He is arrested without incident.
April 4, 2020
Holder is charged with Hussle's murder, and the attempted murder of Lathan and Villanueva. In his initial court appearance he is represented by Christopher Darden, made famous in his role as a prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial. Darden drops off the case days later and a public defender takes over.
"HE LEFT HIS HEART AND SOUL ON CRENSHAW AND SLAUSON"
April 11, 2020
10 a.m. - Nearly 20,000 people, with thousands more outside, mourn Hussle at a public memorial at Staples Center in Los Angeles. A statement is read from Barack Obama saying Hussle left "a legacy worth celebrating." The speakers include Hussle's partner and the mother of his child, actress Lauren London, and Samiel Asghedom, who explains what the shopping center had meant to his little brother. "A lot of people thought coming up when he first got signed, he was gonna get some money and leave," he says through tears. "They had no clue what he really was gonna do. I want everybody to know man, Nip put his heart and soul on Crenshaw and Slauson."
1:30 p.m. - Hussle's body is taken on a 25-mile funeral procession that lasts until dusk, the streets packed with thousands as it rolls through his former neighborhood.
April 12, 2019
Hussle is buried in a private family ceremony. The Los Angeles City Council votes to name the intersection of Crenshaw and Slauson "Nipsey Hussle Square."
May 9, 2019
A grand jury indicts Holder on one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. The woman who drove him is granted immunity and becomes the key witness for the prosecution. Known in court and transcripts only as "Witness #1," her name is kept secret because prosecutors say she has received death threats. Holder has pleaded not guilty and is now in jail awaiting trial. His lawyer has not given any indication of what his defense will be. His most recent hearing, to set a trial date, was postponed because of a court shutdown over coronavirus.
"THE MARATHON CONTINUES"
Jan. 26, 2020
Ten months after his death, and on the same day another local hero, Kobe Bryant, is killed, Hussle wins two posthumous Grammys at Staples Center, best rap performance for his song "Racks in the Middle," and best rap/sung performance for "Higher," a collaboration with DJ Khaled. The show includes a tribute performance to him by Khaled, Kirk Franklin, John Legend, Meek Mill Roddy Ricch and YG. As the performance ends, Khaled shouts a phrase that Hussle used in life that became a rallying cry for his legacy after his death: "The marathon continues!"