Seizure City

The city of Los Angeles is cleaning house before the 2028 Olympics. Who’s cashing in, and who’s being swept under the rug? J. Brian Charles investigates L.A.’s latest transformation

- J. Brian Charles

The hoards of fans who once blotted out the asphalt of the Marathon Clothing store’s parking lot are gone. A chain-link fence now surrounds the strip mall that was ground zero for the empire of Nipsey Hussle, the 33-year-old Los Angeles rapper who was murdered here on March 31, 2019. His death came only weeks after he and his business partners had purchased the building for $2.5 million.

On the surface, the acquisition was the latest in a series of shrewd business decisions by Hussle and his partners, another jewel in the crown for the Grammy-nominated rap star. But this was about more than business. The decision bought him time. For months, city attorney Mike Feuer had been trying to evict the Marathon Clothing store from the strip mall, which cradles the southwest corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue in the heart of South Los Angeles. The city claimed Marathon, the mall’s anchor store, was a haven for members of the Crips gang.

Hussle counted himself among the Rollin’ 60s Crips, whose territory covers much of the Crenshaw neighborhood. As such, he and his associates never denied the claim that members of the notorious L.A. street gang convened at the store and other adjacent businesses owned by the rapper. It was known that Hussle and his associates employed gang members in an effort to invest in both the neighborhood and its residents. These efforts won Hussle praise from celebrities including Jay-Z and Beyoncé and public officials such as Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Los Angeles Police Department’s top ranks.

“He was a tireless advocate for the young people of this city and of this world,” Garcetti said in a press conference following the rapper’s murder, “to lift them up with the possibility of not being imprisoned by where you come from or past mistakes but the possibility of what comes in the future.”