If the initial stories are correct that Nipsy questioned the suspect in question about being a snitch, then in that sense he was sort of playing with fire by involving himself into his hood politics. Of which he almost had no choice if he was still planning on being apart of the community and holding enough respect to operate around there. And this is important to understand and the reason why he was respected more than Snoop, Ice Cube, dr. Dre etc.
He probably just didn’t think the dude was a lunatic that would come back blasting away like that. But that’s the rules of the streets, can’t associate with a known snitch.
People are getting a bit carried away and acting like Nipsy was some kind of saint and no he wasn’t. but overall he was a positive figure in west coast hip hop. He was respected across the board from all different hoods and even his enemies. He worked with everyone and wasn’t promoting more gang warfare for his community. That’s not something everyone is saying just because he died.
Absolutely, I'm not denying Nip did dirt in his life. He was a legitimate gang member of a ruthless set, so I know he did plenty. But you can't be respected by the wolves if you aren't one yourself, you can't talk all that positive shit to gang members if you hold no weight yourself, or they'll tune you right out. But the fact is he was trying to improve his community piece by piece so it didn't have to stay that way, which is more than you can say for a majority of artists. IMO the easiest way to gauge his impact is the sheer amount of people mourning him, even the Mayor of LA and LAPD sent out a message expressing condolences and the Chief of Police specifically referred to Nipsey as someone who was trying to make a change. In fact, he was supposed to meet with the top LAPD brass to talk about how to combat gang violence.
Definitely not a saint, but he was trying harder than most to make a real, lasting difference.
