Nipsey Hussle docuseries ready for 2026 from director One9
A long-awaited docuseries about the life of late hip-hop star Nipsey Hussle may finally be released next year. The filmmakers behind the series say the interviews, music and footage are all there – now they’re looking to network or stream home. Director One9, who was behind the recent three-part Prime Video doc “Allen Iv3rson,” says the tentatively titled “Hussle” will have between five and seven episodes, and will be narrated posthumously by Hussle alongside his brother, Blacc Sam.
The Grammy-winning Hussle (real name Ermias Asghedom), who became a respected figure for both his music career and his community outreach (including investments in Crenshaw’s commercial district), was murdered outside his clothing store in 2019. He was only 33, and his death still reverberates across South-Central LA and the wider Southern California region – where murals honoring the artist are common.
“We worked on it for a number of years and made sure it was told the right way,” says One9. “You’re talking about one of the most inspiring figures alive, a very gifted kid who built his own computers to burn CDs and get his music out there.”
According to One9, the multi-part document is fueled by a wealth of footage that he sifts through as he puts the episodes together. “Nipsey had the foresight to capture everything in his life on video,” says the director. “Even when he was young, his father videotaped everything. You see the entire transformation of a young man coming of age, going through the iterations of his childhood, from gang life, to music independence, to finding his own voice – and then becoming such a huge inspirational figure for the Crenshaw culture and environment.”
The images show how Hussle first entered the studio at the age of 12. He also recorded an unreleased audiobook, parts of which will complement the voiceover. And the series will feature never-before-heard music from the vault.
Blacc Sam – also known as Samiel Asghedom – was instrumental in getting Hussle’s family involved. One9 says: “Sam learns more about Nipsey’s life just by looking at the archives. [footage]. … It’s really the story of those two brothers and how they lived their lives.
Other people around Hussle also contributed archival material. “It’s from all his friends, people who videotaped him during his life in the Rollin ’60s [Neighborhood Crips]” says One9. “We’ve gotten great interviews from Jay-Z to Kendrick Lamar and everyone who knew him at different points in his life. It’s a very complicated story to tell, and we’re just making sure we do it the right way.”
Along with One9, “Hussle” comes from the artist’s Marathon Films Shingle and Springhill from LeBron James and Maverick Carter. One9 recently extended his overall deal at Ian Orefice’s EverWonder Studio, where he has several projects lined up in addition to ‘Hussle’.
One9 began his career with the 2014 documentary ‘Nas: Time Is Illmatic’, which chronicled the making of Nas’ 1994 debut album ‘Illmatic’. He then served as co-executive producer and director on John Singleton’s Emmy-nominated A&E documentary “LA Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later” and was executive producer on “Rather,” Frank Marshall’s 2023 documentary about journalist Dan Rather.
One9 says he landed the “Allen Iv3rson” gig by promising the NBA star that he wanted the docuseries’ approach to be “very raw, brutal, from the heart, from the gut, no punches.” And that’s what he did. He came up with stories about things in his life that were very difficult for him to deal with, whether it be alcoholism, money, dealing with the media, people being killed in and out of his life, and at the same time being the number one player coming out of it. from Georgetown, to Philly, and really helping change the culture of the game.
Among the director’s other papers is a project that focuses on photographer Markus Klinko, an award-winning classically trained harpist who changed careers after a hand injury. As a fashion and celebrity photographer, he has photographed Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and others. Here’s the tagline for “The Art of Reinvention”: “A three-part documentary exploring how artists evolve to survive as the creative world is reshaped by technology and AI, told through the lens of photographer Markus Klinko’s transformation. The series shows that reinvention is not optional, it is the new form of artistic survival.”
One9 says: “What I’ve learned is how to really create identity stories. Looking at how people change, how they persevere, but ultimately how they disrupt. I really like stories that tell about the disruption of the way things were before, how they were after and putting all those pieces together.”
