Nipsey Hussle at the Nipsey Hussle x PUMA Hoops Basketball Court Refurbishment Reveal Event. October 22, 2018.
Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for PUMA
Nipsey Hussle will receive the Humanitarian Award at the 2019 BET Awards, Complex reports. The posthumous celebration of the rapper's social contribution comes after the 33-year-old rapper was shot and killed on March 31.
Outside of his successful rap career, Hussle was known and appreciated for his community activism in his native Los Angeles district of Crenshaw. Some of his projects included the co-working space Vector90, and donated time and money to local schools.
Connie Orlando, an Executive Vice-President for Head of Programming at BET, shared a statement on Hussle's legacy and the network's decision to honor him. Read below via Complex:
"As a prolific artist and leader, Nipsey Hussle was zealous about driving change for the betterment of his community, empowering and employing those in need and being an influential and highly respected leader. His passing was a tremendous loss to the entertainment industry and to the culture. We will continue to remember his advocacy and be inspired by the groundwork he set forth and his dire commitment to social change. We are forever grateful, humbled and honored to have experienced his presence and we are invested in doing our part to ensure that the marathon will indeed continue. It is an immense honor for us to recognize him with this year’s Humanitarian Award."
Previous honorees of the Humanitarian Award are Jesse Williams, Chance The Rapper, and in 2018, a selection of Black activists. The 2019 BET Awards will also contain a tribute to Nipsey from YG, John Legend, and DJ Khaled. All four artists appeared on the song "Higher' from DJ Khaled's album Father of Asahd.
