Tatum Herman (hairstylist): I met one of his producers in a Halloween store. I braided his hair, and a couple days later he was like, “Yo, I work with this dude named Nipsey, and he really thought my braids was fly. You want to braid him up?” So I went to his house to do his hair because I wasn't even in a full shop yet. He was a cool guy. Easy to be around.

Derek “MixedByAli” Ali (recording/mixing engineer): He was that guy that always just shines the room up.

Meek Mill: As I got a chance to know him, I learned he had a good heart. A pure heart. His energy was good.

Jorge Peniche (road manager and business partner): He was just a really stress-free person that did things by a very specific set of guidelines—rules that were super honorable. Other people might have taken shortcuts or scammed. But he always did things the right way.

Herman: He told the truth because lying, to him, was the worst thing you could do. Even if everybody thought he was in the wrong, he stood next to what he did.

Chief Johnson (senior manager of entertainment marketing for Puma, which collaborated with Hussle before his death on a capsule collection): He came across as one of those people who you met one time and you felt like you've known forever. He always had a light to him.

Nipsey and his son, Kross. Courtesy of Asghedom / London

Bell: He was such a family man. He loved his babies. When I would take my son to school in the mornings, I would see him coming from dropping off his daughter. He dropped her off at school every morning. To be an entertainer and find that time out of the day to have these conversations on the way to school with your daughter and be that first person that she sees on her way out? I really admired [that].

London: He was a very gentle father. Extremely gentle. Very present.

Norberto Garcia (videographer): Before you look at all the tattoos, before you look at the gang culture and that side of him, he was really just a beautiful person. He had a beautiful heart. He brought a certain energy into every room he stepped into.

Lewis: [He was] one of the most thrill-seeking-ist, funniest guys. And you would never guess, because he seemed so serious and so astute. But man, Nip's sense of humor? He could have easily done comedy.

Smith: He's like a little kid.

J Roc: My favorite memory is when we had a juice fight in the truck. He was renting a Tahoe. This was during the time when drinking lean was going on, right, so we had some in the truck. And I’m like, “Look, niggas got to stop drinking lean. Niggas that drink lean is cranky as fuck!”

Nip and everybody else is fucked-up, and these niggas start pouring lean on me! I found a bottle of juice and throw it. They throwing lean. None of us ever laughed that hard in our entire lives.

London: Nip was very spontaneous. He would be like, “Boog, let’s go out of town.” And I'd go with him and no luggage. He was very fun in that way. He loved having fun. We’d wake up in the morning, and he'd be like, “Bet you won't get on a roller coaster.” We would literally just wash our faces, brush our teeth, put on sweats, and go to Magic Mountain, randomly, to get on a roller coaster and start the day.