--- title: "Nipsey Hussle’s brother Blacc Sam calls Jay-Z’s SoFi Stadium tribute to the rapper ‘monumental’" url: https://badiyaa.com/blacc-sam-jay-z-nipsey-hussle-tribute-sofi/ published: 2026-10-29T12:42:00+00:00 modified: 2026-10-29T12:42:00+00:00 section: Entertainment publisher: Badiyaa --- # Nipsey Hussle’s brother Blacc Sam calls Jay-Z’s SoFi Stadium tribute to the rapper ‘monumental’ Jay-Z blended Nipsey's Victory Lap tracks Hussle & Motivate and Last Time That I Checc'd into his October 23 Inglewood set as the late rapper's image filled the screens. Blacc Sam says his phone would not stop buzzing after Jay-Z worked his late brother Nipsey Hussle’s music into a sold-out show at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Speaking at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday, October 26, Nipsey’s older brother called the gesture “monumental.” The salute came on Friday, October 23, the first of two Los Angeles nights that closed Jay-Z’s anniversary run marking 30 years of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. Badiyaa covered [the full two-night SoFi finale and its guest list](https://badiyaa.com/jay-z-sofi-stadium-scarface-dre-snoop/) earlier this week; this piece is about the moment that landed hardest in the city itself, and how Nipsey’s family heard it. ## What Jay-Z played Midway through “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” Jay-Z folded in pieces of Nipsey’s “Hussle & Motivate” while the Crenshaw rapper’s face filled the stadium screens. Later in the set, the beat from “Last Time That I Checc’d” ran underneath “On to the Next One.” Both songs come from Victory Lap, the 2018 studio debut that Nipsey spent years delaying until it was right. The album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, and it climbed to No. 2 on the US albums chart in April 2019, after his death that spring. ## Why Blacc Sam called it monumental For Sam, born Samiel Asghedom, the tribute was personal. He said the two brothers had idolized Jay-Z since childhood, and that the Brooklyn star later moved from hero to someone inside their circle who pushed Nipsey’s career forward. He also said much of that support never reached the public, describing help on the music side and the business side alike. According to Sam, Jay-Z has backed the family and Marathon Burger, the restaurant chain Sam co-owns, which has just opened a branch in Terminal 1 at the same airport where he was speaking. ## A connection that runs back to 2013 The SoFi moment sits at the end of a long thread between the two rappers. Here is how that thread runs, built from the public record: - **October 2013:** Nipsey sold 1,000 physical copies of his Crenshaw mixtape at $100 each, and Jay-Z personally bought 100 of them, a $10,000 show of faith in a self-released West Coast artist. - **2019:** After Nipsey died that March, Jay-Z wrote a letter honoring him that was printed in the memorial program. - **2021:** The two appeared together on “What It Feels Like,” a posthumous track for the Judas and the Black Messiah soundtrack. - **October 2026:** Two Victory Lap records are woven into a Jay-Z stadium set a few miles from the Crenshaw District where Nipsey grew up. That $10,000 mixtape purchase is the detail fans still bring up, because it showed a superstar paying full price for the “proud to pay” business model Nipsey built around limited, expensive hard copies. ## The Marathon after the stadium lights Nipsey’s brand was always about the long game, and the family has kept the Marathon name moving. The new Marathon Burger at the airport is the latest example, and Sam framed Jay-Z’s on-stage nod as part of the same quiet backing he says the family has had for years. For Los Angeles fans, the timing mattered too. Jay-Z returns to SoFi Stadium in February 2027 to headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime show, a booking Badiyaa reported [when it was announced](https://badiyaa.com/jay-z-super-bowl-lxi-halftime-show-headliner/). Whether Nipsey’s music turns up again on that stage is anyone’s guess; for now, Sam’s one-word verdict on the October 23 tribute is “monumental.” ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Nipsey Hussle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipsey_Hussle) *Image: wonker from London, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*