Before he died, Nipsey Hussle was one of the staunchest advocates of Jay-Z’s Tidal streaming platform, much in the same way Jay admired Nip’s entrepreneurial spirit, buying 100 copies of Nipsey’s $100 mixtape, Crenshaw. Tidal already paid tribute to the late, great Los Angeles rapper by surfacing all of his albums on its platform after his death, likely contributing to three of those albums entering Billboard‘s Top 200 chart, but now, Tidal is also helping fans remember him by live streaming his memorial service taking place today at Staples Center in LA.
The service, which sold out in minutes, will take place today at 10 AM PST. While tickets to Nipsey Hussle’s Celebration Of Life were free and open to the public, it wasn’t long before the service plagued by scalpers hoping to exploit well-wishers’ desire to be present at Nipsey’s remembrance, causing resale sites to shut them down out of respect for Nipsey and his family.
Nipsey was killed March 31 at his Marathon clothing store when he eschewed his usual security escort to visit the store and help a friend who was just returning home from prison. Police arrested a suspect, Eric Holder, days later, charging him for murder and attempted murder, saying that Holder shot at Nipsey and two other men, killing Nipsey and wounding the other two. He was last reported being held in solitary confinement to prevent reprisals.
Los Angeles has announced that it will rename the corner on which Marathon is located in honor of Nipsey, and thanks in part to Tidal, a number of his songs have reached the Hot 100. You can watch Tidal’s stream of the memorial service here.
