There’s no denying how influential Nipsey Hussle was as a rapper and entrepreneur. His life’s legacy was literally defined by giving back to the local economy and the community of Crenshaw that he called home and the surrounding areas. Now, a college-level course called “The Marathon Continues: Building Brand Through Culture” will be taught around, “The art of branding ‘The Marathon Way'” and “Brand building strategies and tactics that are motivated and driven through cultural influence.”
Taught by Nipsey Hussle’s longtime business partner, David Gross, the course is coming to Los Angeles’ Loyola Marymount University School of Business Administration, an institution where Nipsey Hussle himself was once a professor. “The class will focus on Hussle’s genius and authenticity in his approach to business and life,” Gross wrote on Instagram.
Gross also gave some context surrounding the class that he and Hussle taught in the past and how it has led to this new course:
I gotta give flowers to Mitchell Hamilton, a tenured professor and the head of the Marketing Department at Loyola Marymount’s business school. He reached out to me and Nip in 2017 and asked if we’d teach a class at the business school. He gave us carte blanche, with the caveat that we were authentic and didn’t water anything down because we were in a university environment. The class was a hit, and it lead to a second class the following semester. This was Spring of 2019, so we never got to finish the class. Mitch has reached out to me several times in the following years, extending the opportunity to return and teach another class. He always told me I could teach whatever I wanted if it would both challenge and inspire his students….It’s finally time like to go back this Spring to teach a the class that honors Nip’s enormous legacy, and analyzes how he was able to put a dent in the universe by creating the most resonant brand to come out of the culture #TMC
And while a life-sized wax figure of Hussle just debuted in honor of the rapper in Ohio, an academic class about how his business mind works seems to be a far more compelling way spread the gospel of his legacy.
Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. .
