ARTIFACTS #1: Nipsey Signed My "Crenshaw" Vinyl
A voice note story by 1000WORD$
A MESSAGE FROM 1000WORD$:
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Yo, this is 1000WORD$, welcome to WORDS WITH WORD$.
This is a new section on my Substack called ARTIFACTS. To me, artifacts are things that I have acquired throughout my journey, things that are given to me as gifts, things that I purchased to get autographed or things that I purchased as gifts for others. These are going to be the stories of the items I in my collection, of the legendary artists I have met and my memory of the experience.
This is just for things that I love to collect, things that I find interesting, and things that have a dope history behind them. I want to share with you guys because I know you guys support what I do. For the first installment of ARTIFACTS, I decided to tell the story of how I acquired my "Crenshaw" Nipsey Hussle vinyl, autographed by him and the Polaroid I took – he signed it with a blue Sharpie. You can listen along as you read below:
So this goes back to when I was traveling from the Bronx to upstate New York to see my daughter's mother. And I'm like, "I wanna listen to that Nipsey Hussle on a train ride on the Metro north and shit." And shit, the album was amazing. I remember Jay Z bought 100 copies. I think $400, and you know, I streamed it. And a couple of months later, I'm in Rough Trade in Brooklyn, and I see the vinyl. And I see it's the last vinyl, and I purchased it. I was so hype because I really enjoyed that album… Album was fucking fire. Fast forward, Nipsey has a show in Urban Plaza. And it's a doubleheader, he was doing one in the early afternoon, and then one into late night. And I remember I wanted to go to the show, and I didn't have no money for a ticket. And my friend Jay, I asked him like, "Yo, bro, I was wondering on this concert, you think you could send me some money to buy the ticket?" And he sent me the money, I bought the ticket, and I stood in line.
I was standing alone. And I see one of my home girls that I met through hanging out at Tough City, the home girl Nemo and shit. I saw her, she was in line with her home girl. And I was like, "Yo, I'm trying to sneak into this shit, like to backstage, so I could get the Polaroid ." And you know, I think she had told me that her home girl got like a retweet from Nipsey and shit, as she was staying in line or some shit, that he retweeted her shit. So we – I went inside and I went all the way upstairs. And it was crowded… I remember Casanova being by the door. And I remember nobody could go inside because it was packed, but Nip was performing. And I'm trying to talk to the guard and shit, let them know, I'm a photographer, but not really being a photographer cuz I got no credentials and shit, you know. So, I'm trying to finesse. Then an argument breaks out, and I kind of get in between the argument and try to defuse it. The guard became kinda cool with me.
Once the door opened, and a few people got out, he let me in. So once I get in, I'm waiting, I'm waiting there, and Nipsey finishes performing, and then Nipsey comes into the room and his security guard comes in and just starts telling everybody to get out. So he's like, looking at me specifically, you know, so I fucking, you know, I beat him to the punch before he gets to me to try to escort me out. So I see that he locked eyes on me like, "Yeah, literally get out." So I step outside and I tell the the bouncer that let me in, the security guard, like, "Yo, it's packed in there. I just want to get some fresh air. And I'll go back in a few minutes." And he was like, "Alright, cool." So I kind of played it smooth there.
Keith Murray comes out, I get a picture of Keith Murray. And you know, so I go back inside. The same security guard turns around and looks at me again, like, "Yo, what you doing in here.?" So I turn around and I just power walk outside and I hid in a little corner to do comes out. But he went downstairs to go wrap around, I guess. So, he goes around and I go back into there. Long story short, Nip is sitting there in the dressing room and these dudes are about to interview him. And they closed the door of the other dressing room, and I'm able to close the other door and it's just the four of us in there, witnessing the interview, him give the interview and shit. And I bring up my boy, Bodega Bamz. And he remembered who he was, oh yeah, Bodega Bamz is my man, Ola. You know, he remembered them. I got this old footage and shit. And you know, he continued to get interviewed.
Once the the interview was over, I asked if I could take a Polaroid of him while he was sitting on the couch. He just threw his peace signs up and took the picture. And I had a blue Sharpie, you know, and he signed the Polaroid with a blue Sharpie. But I also brought my "Crenshaw" vinyl with me, you know, and he blessed it, man, you know. He tagged it up. I was really happy that day because my whole thing is to try to get these autographs of people that I listened to because their music connects with me. That's what I do this for. I do this for the experience of meeting the artists I listen to. And you know sometimes, unfortunate things happen and they're no longer here, and these are things that I can look back on and reflect. And treat it like the artifact that it is. You know what I mean? Rest In Peace to Nipsey Hussle, Definitely a legend. So, salute to you, man. What a wonderful experience.