107 Memorable Nipsey Hussle Quotes To Live for Today

They say the good die young, and Nipsey Hussle certainly fits that meaning. At age 33, he was murdered outside his store sending shock waves around the country. Many still miss this rapper in 2021 for the contribution he made to the world.

He worked alongside Big Sean and Drake, while also appearing alongside Snoop Dogg. He’s an entrepreneur too, having created a business at age 11 shining shoes so he could pay for school clothes. Clearly a hustler!

In his early 20’s, he went on towards launching Marathon Agency and Marathon Clothing, with both businesses designed to provide opportunities for music distribution. Pair that with his community activism and you’ll find a man who wanted to inspire many young black men to get their life together while curbing gang violence.

While only spending a short time on this planet, he left behind a legacy that is respected by many. In 2021, Netflix is planning to create a documentary on his life. Until its release, you’ll find yourself some nostalgia with these list of quotes, sayings and lyrics from Ermias Joseph Asghedom, simply known as Nipsey Hussle.

1. Seize the opportunity, believe and take control of it. Then get on your marathon and grind it ’til it’s over with.

Nipsey Hussle

2. Success or greatness come with a roller-coaster ride… anybody can apply the marathon concept to what they do.

Nipsey Hussle

3. Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.

Nipsey Hussle

4. Life is what you make it, I hope you make a movement.

Nipsey Hussle

5. I built a company at the same time I built a career.

Nipsey Hussle

6. Instead of trying to build a brick wall, lay a brick everyday. Eventually you’ll look up and you’ll have a brick wall.

Nipsey Hussle

7. I say it’s worth it, I won’t say it’s fair, Find your purpose or you wastin air

Nipsey Hussle

8. I never wanted to alienate my brand for business … I always wanted to keep it authentic and keep as pure as I could.

Nipsey Hussle

9. If you’re a hustler, you should find somewhere to capitalize off that and turn it into some money.

Nipsey Hussle

10. Thought is powerful in all phases. Even in my career, even in my life, things end up exactly how I visualized them.

Nipsey Hussle

11. Most important thing is to get rid of doubt. If you got doubt in what you’re doing it’s not gonna work.

Nipsey Hussle

12. I believe that we should own the fruits of our labor and the assets of our creations.

Nipsey Hussle

13. Success to me is just being able to do what you love to do and support yourself all through.

Nipsey Hussle

14. Play the game like I’ve never won once.

Nipsey Hussle

15. You’ve got to have faith in what you’re doing and not take no for an answer.

Nipsey Hussle

16. Obviously from childhood to my teenage years, I really came into my own. I left the house early; I was on the streets when I was, like, 15. I’ve been holdin’ my own since that age.

Nipsey Hussle

17. Your parents are supposed to tell you to make decisions that are gonna help you and that’ll have a positive effect on your life and your well-being.

Nipsey Hussle

18. Don’t waste your time, it don’t make you rich.

Nipsey Hussle

19. Without a game plan and without a strong sense of faith in what you’re doing, it’s gonna be real hard to accomplish anything.

Nipsey Hussle

20. Gotta cross my T’s and dot my I’s or I can’t sleep well.

Nipsey Hussle

21. I just believe in ownership… I believe in investing in yourself…Your foundation should be strong.

Nipsey Hussle

22. Most people want to skip the process, not knowing that when you skip steps, you miss lessons. If you start small and build on what you have, you can continue to multiply that into something greater, while picking up all of the valuable lessons along the way.

Nipsey Hussle

23. We got turned down, we failed, had set backs, had to start over a lot of times. But we kept going at it. In anybody’s case that’s always the distinguishing factor.

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24. Turning up my hustle’s how I give myself a raise.

Nipsey Hussle

25. I’m focusing on the music, but I still got a cold library of books that I’ve either read or I plan on getting to.

Nipsey Hussle

26. I grew up in an environment where being polite was taken as a weakness. So I just fought everybody.

Nipsey Hussle

27. To me, respect comes first.

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28. This technology has empowered everybody. And it’s giving people, you know, it’s as big as you wanna make it and, you know, it’s as far as you take it.

Nipsey Hussle

29. I’m more focused on giving solutions and inspiration more than anything.

Nipsey Hussle

30. I don’t know about hell, I don’t know about heaven, All I know is ’bout right now and this lifestyle is interesting.

Nipsey Hussle

31. Luck is just bein’ prepared at all times, so when the door opens you’re ready.

Nipsey Hussle

32. When I became a man, and I started to understand the difference between the truth and what your parents are supposed to tell you, there’s a difference, know what I mean?

Nipsey Hussle

33. Be truthful with yourself and other people, and try your best to make decisions outside of your ego.

Nipsey Hussle

34. It’s strictly business in this game, still they faking friendly. Don’t let em take advantage of you and it make em envy.

Nipsey Hussle

35. My thing is that I don’t give no person that much power over my path that I’m walking. Not one person can make or break what I’m doing, except me or God.

Nipsey Hussle

36. Started out the trunk, ended up at the dealership.

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37. Material things ain’t nothing, you feel me? At the end of the day it’s who you is.

Nipsey Hussle

38. I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

Nipsey Hussle

39. Luck is the product of hard work.

Nipsey Hussle

40. I’d rather invest in real estate — invest in some assets as opposed to trick all my money in diamonds and cars — it look good but at the end of the day you’re losing value. It ain’t appreciating, it’s depreciating. (I’m trying to get) a real asset. Take care of my people.

Nipsey Hussle

41. Every step is like chess; The wrong move gets you killed, So we act on how we think, And never speak on how we feel.

Nipsey Hussle

42. I knew I wanted to work for myself when I was about eleven.

Nipsey Hussle

43. Dedication, hard work plus patience. The sum of all my sacrifice, I’m done ‘waitin’, I’m done ‘waintin’, told you that I wasn’t ‘playin’.

Nipsey Hussle

44. Gangbanging is a survival instinct, regardless of how anybody tries to paint it.

Nipsey Hussle

45. If you look at the people in your circle and don’t get inspired, then you don’t have a circle. You have a cage.

Nipsey Hussle

46. Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.

Nipsey Hussle

47. What good is a team, When everyone depends on you?

Nipsey Hussle

48. I think you can give a pure artistic product if you understand how to build your own industry.

Nipsey Hussle

49. A lot of artists come into the game with a radio record, but they don’t establish the fans as fans of their style of music. It’s just that they’re a fan of that song, and after that song plays out, it’s real hard for ’em.

Nipsey Hussle

50. Hopin’ what I’m doing truly make my mama proud, ‘Cause for a very long time, I was the reason for her frowns.

Nipsey Hussle

51. ‘Cause if you sharing your success, and not your struggle, you’s a fool.

Nipsey Hussle

52. I’m the type person, my safe place to be emotional is the booth.

Nipsey Hussle

53. If it wasn’t for the music bein’ my outlet, I’d probably be hustlin’. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to go and get a nine-to-five, I never finished high school or none of that.

Nipsey Hussle

54. We’re not the cause, we’re the effect.

Nipsey Hussle

55. I try to sprinkle little gems and jewels in the music that people could use in their own life.

Nipsey Hussle

56. And it can be as simple as it seems, If you never doubt yourself and learn from everything you see.

Nipsey Hussle

57. I’m tryin’ to live my life, so when it’s over I got no regrets.

Nipsey Hussle

58. If you don’t know your full-throttle history, the whole story of how you came to where you are, it’s kind of hard to put things together.

Nipsey Hussle

59. I hate to lose so I play too rough.

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60. I’m about seeing long-term, seeing a vision, understanding nothing really worthwhile happens overnight, and just sticking to your script long enough to make something real happen.

Nipsey Hussle

61. Be more fearless. All my radical moonshots have defined me. That don’t be my downfall, my downfall will be not going crazy, not having a higher expectation. Anytime I done set my sight on something that seemed way outlandish, it always come back exactly how I seen it. So, I think I would tell myself to just put way bigger goals on the wall. Just have a bigger vision, have a higher expectation.

Nipsey Hussle

62. I’m at peace with what I’m doing, I feel good with what I wake up doing and about my lifestyle.

Nipsey Hussle

63. Finish what we started, reach them heights, you know?

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64. I always had passion for rap music and I was always trying to create a situation to where I could do this full-time.

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65. I was never ignorant, as far as being experienced in classrooms and learning about different subjects and actually soaking it up.

Nipsey Hussle

66. And it’s possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.

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67. You will never be criticized by someone who is doing more than you. You will only be criticized by someone who is doing less than you. Remember that.

Nipsey Hussle

68. On a mission your worst enemy is idle time.

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69. I realized the power of hip-hop. I realized how influential this music and this culture are.

Nipsey Hussle

70. You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

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71. Most of the time I look inside, And find the answers waitin’.

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72. If you’re going to write about rap music and hip-hop, and you don’t love it, then we don’t need your opinion, and we revoke your opinion.

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73. None of my peers avoided prison. None of ’em.

Nipsey Hussle

74. The best thing you can do for a person is to inspire them. That’s the best currency you can offer: inspiration.

Nipsey Hussle

75. Before rap my last name was my lifestyle, and when I visualize success it looked like right now.

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76. Doing music to pay bills is an uncomfortable situation. I never wanted to be in that situation.

Nipsey Hussle

77. Ain’t gone be no east cost west coast war. Ain’t gone be no black men killing black men.

Nipsey Hussle

78. A speaker of truth has no friends.

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79. Black people in America, people from the struggle, immigrants, it’s no generational wealth that we are attached to, so we are tasked to create – in one generation – closing the gap. That’s why we so Doomsday about getting to the check: ’cause it’s life or death for real.

Nipsey Hussle

80. Most important thing to get rid of is doubt. If you got doubt in what you’re doing it’s not going to work

Nipsey Hussle

81. I hit the league straight out the streets wit no talent scout.

Nipsey Hussle

82. An artist always know everything he does, you know what I’m saying, all the record he starts and don’t end up in the public and just sit on the harddrive.

Nipsey Hussle

83. Define who you are and what you are, and be clear on that. Meditate on that and then, live and die by that. You can’t break the rules, the fundamental rules. Be a man of your word, do what you say you’re gonna do, respect people the way you would like to be respected.

Nipsey Hussle

84. We playing the long game. We don’t want the money to stop when we go. When we can’t work no more. We want it to outlive us, we want it to be generational.

Nipsey Hussle

85. As an artist, as a brand, as a rapper, as a musician, you know you got a window and a lot of people, even an athlete; they don’t have no exit strategy. It’s just living in the false reality that it’s going to be like this forever.

Nipsey Hussle

86. If you’ve got a plan, it’s not just like a pipe dream. You have a step-by-step list of things to do to get to your goal.

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87. The company you keep has a large influence on the situations you bring to yourself.

Nipsey Hussle

88. I identify myself as a hustler since I was a young kid.

Nipsey Hussle

89. I call it ‘dropping the rope’. You’ve got to drop a rope. Everybody got to climb up, but you gotta drop the rope.

Nipsey Hussle

90. As gang members, as young dudes in the streets, especially in L.A., we’re the effect of a situation. We didn’t wake up and create our own mindstate and our environment; we adapted our survival instincts.

Nipsey Hussle

91. I taught all my (people) how to fish. Some caught more than others. Some said they rather be fed. Some passed me up in the process. But at the end of it all, I know I ain’t hide the game from my people and I’m real for that.

Nipsey Hussle

92. Circle got smaller everybody can’t go.

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93. I say that in the most humble way: I always knew that I could perform with the best of ’em and I could deliver with the best of ’em.

Nipsey Hussle

94. If I wasn’t involved in this hip-hop sh*t, I’d probably be breakin’ the law to eat and feed my family and maintain the lifestyle that I’m used to.

Nipsey Hussle

95. I took my wildest dreams then mapped them out. I go for mine like it’s overtime, me and my n*ggas had to struggle so we over-shine.

Nipsey Hussle

96. When I realized the power of hip-hop. I realized how influential this music and this culture are.

Nipsey Hussle

97. I believe that economics is based on scarcity of markets and it’s possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.

Nipsey Hussle

98. Sometimes, you have to take steps back to take one step forward.

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99. One small misunderstanding can show you exactly how a person really feels about you.

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100. Every artist wants something different out the game.

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101. If you got a plan, it’s not just like a pipe dream. You have a step-by-step list of things to do to get your goal.

Nipsey Hussle

102. Premature certainty is the enemy of the truth.

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103. The reason children accept discipline from their parents is because they know their parents love them.

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104. I feel that puttin’ in the hours and years in the studio, honing my craft, definitely played a part, me consciously networking and presenting myself as an artist that’s commercially sellable led to me meeting the right people, which in turn led to them givin’ me positive referral to other people, which in turn led me to signin’ a deal.

Nipsey Hussle

105. Being self-made means never making an excuse as to why you can’t take steps toward whatever your goal is.

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106. I don’t need no side bitch. I need a never leave my side bitch.

Nipsey Hussle

107. I’m about seeing long term, seeing a vision, understanding nothing really worthwhile happens overnight, and just sticking to your script long enough to make something really happen.

Nipsey Hussle