Nipsey Hussle’s mother kept her composure on Thursday as she shared his final text messages the day before he died.

Dressed in an all-white gown and matching ruffled hat, Angelique Smith told the 21,000 mourners at her son’s memorial service that she felt death coming in the days before his murder.

“My heart feels as if there’s possibly heaviness in your heart and soul,” she recalled texting Hussle, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom, on March 30 — the day before he was gunned down in Los Angeles.

“Ermias says, ‘No mom. I’m A-1.’ That’s what he would always tell me,” Smith recalled, flanked by her husband and Hussle’s father, Dawit Asghedom. “Ever since he was a boy, pain did not faze him. He took it like a champ.”


The 33-year-old artist followed up with another message to his mom.

“I’m grateful I have a studio again. I’m just happy and ready to work,” he told her.

Exhaling deeply and patting her chest as if in pain, Smith then said, “I’m very proud of my son. My son, Ermias Joseph Asghedom, was a great man.”

Earlier, Hussle’s young nephew Khalil Kimble had the audience at the packed Staples Center choking back tears as he recalled a dream on April 2.

“I was in paradise and I was playing in the ocean water when Ermias popped up right behind me. He said, ‘What’s up, kiddo?’ because that’s my nickname to him,” Khalil told the crowd as a pin with his uncle’s face gleamed on his suit jacket. “I told my mom about the dream and … I realized that Ermias told me what heaven was like. He told me it was paradise.”