LOS ANGELES — The memory of the rapper Nipsey Hussle still looms large over Los Angeles. On one mural, his spray-painted image is adorned with angel wings; on others it is surrounded by inspirational quotes. A city intersection has been named in his honor. And a strip mall he owned in South Los Angeles has become a memorial, with a steady flow of tourists and flowers.

Two days after Hussle was shot and killed in the parking lot of that mall in March, city leaders stood behind a bank of microphones and addressed a shaken Los Angeles. The mayor called Hussle “an artist who touched our city.” The police chief hailed him as a peacemaker. The head of the police commission said he had plans to meet with Hussle to discuss ways to reduce gang violence.

Yet in the same moment that the city’s leaders were rushing to embrace Hussle as a hero of South Los Angeles, officials in the Police Department and city attorney’s office were investigating him. According to the city authorities and others briefed on the matter, they had an open investigation into Hussle, his property and his business associates to determine whether the strip mall at the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue was a hub of gang activity.

The investigation into Hussle’s empire, which the city has not publicized, continues in the wake of the killing, raising the possibility that the city will take action against the rapper’s remaining business partners. As part of the investigation, the city pressured Hussle’s former landlords to evict the rapper and his associates. Instead, the landlords sold the property earlier this year to Hussle and a group of investors for $2.5 million, according to public records.