Manifesting Your Dreams Through Music

I woke up this morning thinking about Nipsey Hussle…again.

It’s really incredible how someone who I never got the chance to meet can have such a profound impact on my life. I think I have a better understanding of it now than I ever have before, though.

Music has always been a nonstop part of my life. As someone who loves to write, it’s inspiring, and aspirational, and whether I have it playing or not, I constantly hear it in my head. Nipsey Hussle is one of a handful of artists that have been on my playlist (both mental and otherwise) since the moment I heard him. I can’t remember the exact moment I heard Nipsey for the first time, but I used to post what I was listening to regularly on Twitter and the earliest post that shows is from 2009. (As I type this, I realize how much I miss the early days of Twitter, and how I could connect with so many people in such a simple way that just doesn’t seem to work in today’s social media landscape.)

The Marathon solidified Nipsey in my regular rotation. Keys 2 The City, Late Nights and Early Mornings, the whole mixtape was on repeat, especially since I was living in LA back then. It seemed like DJ Skee was dropping new Nipsey Hussle tracks and mixtapes every few months back then. Then Crenshaw dropped, and at the time I couldn’t swing the $100 at the moment, but the strategy made me even more of a fan. I did, a couple of years later, land one of the test pressings for Crenshaw. Although I would have rather sent my money straight to Nipsey, I felt as if I still captured the importance of the moment by getting my hands on 1 of only 5 that were produced.

Slauson Boy 2 dropped a week or two after my birthday and I can still remember hearing Ocean Views for the first time. It became my motto. It still is. My commitment to taking Nipsey’s words to heart went next level. I’ve always craved the level of inspiration and aspiration that Nipsey put into his music. That desire has kept my ears free of a lot of corny sh!t.

For nearly 7 years straight, every single day, I woke up to Nipsey Hussle’s Ocean Views. And while I’m currently living in a place that is nearly the dream of ocean views, the song still motivates me to keep pushing forward.

As for my understanding of the impact of Nipsey’s words on my life, it’s similar to the amount I’ve listened to artists like Tupac, Prince, Larry June, Chris Cornell, and Kendrick Lamar. While Kendrick is the only person on that list that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting (and that’s a great story for another time), the words from each of these artists have been repeated in my head, likely tens of thousands of times or more. That means I’ve heard these lyrics more than I’ve likely heard the people that I am closest to in my personal life. It sounds strange, but I don’t spend hours on the phone every day, but I do listen to music and podcasts every single day

It’s also the reason I love podcasts, both creating them and listening to them. When you spend so much time listening to someone, you feel like you really get to know them. It provides a more authentic (although one-sided) relationship than the likes, comments, and doom-scrolling that other platforms steal our time with.

Much like the daily affirmations I mentioned in the post about journaling, the power of speaking your dreams and goals into existence works is real, and it works just as well when it’s me rapping along with the lyrics to Ocean Views as I roll out of bed each morning…