For Nipsey Hussle, A Promising Career — And Grand Plans — Cut Short

Nipsey Hussle in Los Angeles on Grammy weekend. (credit: Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images)

Two days before this year’s Grammy Awards, the late Nipsey Hussle took me on a tour of the small strip mall on West Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles where he earned his name as a youngster. He’d opened his Marathon clothing store there before making perhaps the proudest purchase of his life—the plaza itself—in February.

Nipsey and his business partner David Gross had a grand plan to turn the property into a mi...