From Crenshaw district, South Central Los Angeles, Nipsey Hussle made a name for himself as a Hip-Hop mogul, community activist, and entrepreneur.
Before his unfortunate passing, the Grammy-award winning artist gave us one of the best Hip-Hop albums in 2018. His debut studio album, Victory Lap.
Today, February 16, 2021 marks the third year anniversary of Victory Lap. In honor of the album's anniversary, I've gathered some of Nipsey Hussle's most motivational bars from Victory Lap.
In a 2018 interview, the late-great rapper recalled making his project and explained what Victory Lap meant to him:
"I knew when I was making ‘Victory Lap’ that the point I was at in my career I wasn’t going to do nothing else until I felt that I had an album with 14 or 16 great songs. That was my goal. Also and album that was pure to me. I didn’t have no intentions other then me telling my story. I didn’t want you to hear the radio reach, or the club reach, or the you know like, I wanted it to be a person telling a story."
Check out these 10 motivational Victory Lap lyrics to inspire the hustler in you. #TMC 🏁 - Lupe LLerenas (@LupeLLerenas)
Photo by Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images
"Last Time That I Checc'd" Feat. YG
"It was visionary, either I'm genius or you ni**as scary/Maybe it's both and this balance I deliver daily/For every ni**a in the streets tryna feed the babies/The single mama's workin' hard not to miss a payment/And dirty money get washed on royalty statements/Black owners in this game are powerful racists/Young ni**as in the set that's doin' it makeshift/Out the garage is how you end up in charge/That's how you end up in cars"
"Dedication" Feat. Kendrick Lamar
"This ain't entertainment, it's for ni**as on the slave ship/These songs just the spirituals I swam against them waves wit/Ended up on shore to their amazement/I hope the example I set's not contagious/Lock us behind gates but can't tame us/Used to be stay safe, now it's stay dangerous/'Cause ain't no point in playin' defense ni**a/That's why I dove off the deep end ni**a, without a life jacket/Couple mil, tour the world, now my life crackin'/Cook the books, bring it back so it's no taxes"
"Dedication, hard work plus patience/The sum of all my sacrifice, I'm done waitin'/I'm done waitin', told you that I wasn't playin'/Now you hear what I been sayin'/Dedication"
"Hussle & Motivate"
"Hit by the rules like a fuckin' ref/I got respect in like a hundred sets/Too many chains, need another chest/Playin' no games if it wasn't chess/Cut from that cloth that you couldn't stretch/Cut from that circle you couldn't test/Heavily pressured and under stressed, even though ni**as ain't show up, it was a mess/Honest as Tip playing to the left/Judge a young ni**a by they address/Left us no option, what they expect/Only thing we knew for sure was to bang the set"
"Keyz 2 the City 2" Feat. TeeFlii
"I'm drippin' tears, you should know I never had a fear/You should know I never had a shot, never had a chance, still I took it here/Manage pride but I see it clear, strategize, I'm a engineer/Pick a side, gotta keep it there, switchin' up ni**a, lookin' weird"
"Grinding All My Life"
"I'm married to the game, that's who I made my wife/Said I die alone, I told that b*tch she probably right/One thing that's for sure, not a stranger to this life/Got a safe that's full of Franklins and a shoulder full of stripes/I don't know a ni**a like myself/I say self-made, meanin' I designed myself/County jail fades, you can pull my file yourself/Spot raids, swallow rocks, I'm gettin' high myself"
All my life, been grindin' all my life/Sacrificed, hustled, paid the price/Want a slice, got to roll the dice/That's why all my life, I been grindin' all my life"
"Real Big" Feat. Marsha Ambrosius
"High school, didn't go/Couldn't understand my plan, now you ni**as know/Self made, well paid/I'm from where they tell you never touch the shell case/I'm from where they teach you never trust a pale face/Talk bangin', I can tell you 'bout a field race/Real sh*t, real sh*t, I know all my real ni**as feel this/Night time, locs on/F*ckin' young b*tches while they folks home"
"Double Up" Feat. Dom Kennedy & Belly
"My new sh*t sound like it's Soul Train, Tookie Williams over Coltrane/Eric B by the rope chain, RSC we fo' sho bang/Tiny locs and they go crazy, what you know about the dope game?/Was you born in the '80s? Did your mama smoke cocaine?/Have you ever seen a whole thang?/What you drove through to the streets/'Cause you grew up on short change"
"Right Hand 2 God"
"I rose from a Regal, Auroras and Lincoln's/Low-pros on Alpina's, to German drop top two-seaters/Was young and prestigious, phone was matchin' my beeper/'How the f*ck you 'gon reach him?', he makin' more than his teachers/Movin' forward with speed, all your morals'll leave/Only focus is cheese, now the forest is trees/Got infected with greed, distort what you see/Your worst nightmare than me, is justifying your means"