In a candid interview with NBA star Stephen Curry, Nipsey Hussle reflects on his experiences as a father and the responsibilities that come with shaping his children's worldview. He describes a daily morning script he shares with his daughter that reinforces core principles such as integrity, leadership, confidence, and self‑belief. Hussle explains how his own father's teachings influence his parenting, and he acknowledges past mistakes made by following the crowd rather than leading. He emphasizes the importance of being present, modeling the values he preaches, and recognizing fatherhood as a catalyst for personal growth and community impact. Both men discuss the broader role of fathers in instilling confidence, affirming worth, and inspiring the next generation, highlighting the profound, lasting influence of parental guidance.
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What are your experiences on being a father? Like, how have you taken on that responsibility of being present in their life and how you gonna shape their perspective about the world that they're gonna try to take over, you know, when it's their turn?
That's heavy, man, 'cause this world, I guess when, you know, when I used to hear my mom and my grandma saying like, "Man, this world going crazy," I'm just like, "That's some shit old people say," you know what I'm saying? But nah, it's crazy to see the, the shift that's happening just to raise good people.
Yeah.
You know, that have a foundation of like principle and a foundation of integrity. You know, when I drop my daughter off every day, I drill her every day at school when I take her to school, you know, we have a little convo we have before she got out the car and she gets sick of running the script to me, but I pound it in her head. Like, you know, what is integrity? You know, integrity doing the right thing when nobody's looking. "Alright, you know, are you a leader or a follower?" "I'm a leader." "What's the difference?" "Think for myself." "Alright. Do you have confidence?" "Yes." "What's confidence?" "Believe in myself." That's our script every morning. And it seems basic, but I want her to get older and look back on the things that I thought was important. You know what I mean? Like, my dad always put into me integrity, confidence, and being a leader.
Mm-hmm.
And regardless if she can't really embrace those, ideas right now, when she get older and do an evaluation of what the message that I wanted her to receive direct—
She ain't gonna forget that.
She not gonna forget that that's what my dad thought was really important, was the integrity, the leadership, and the confidence. You know, when I think about my life, the mistakes I made, a lot of them was from, you know, not having faith and being a leader or just being separate from the crowd. And I made mistakes following the crowd at times. The things I did right was moments of confidence and moments of integrity, you know? So I think when I— the message I give my daughter— my son's really young. He 18 months. So he's picking it up by osmosis just by watching right now.
That's a beautiful thing.
Yeah.
And the fact that you have the awareness, like, especially raising a daughter— I got 2 daughters as well. Like, the world is crazy.
Yeah.
The one voice that they hear first and most consistently should be ours.
100%.
Instilling confidence. Tell them they're beautiful.
Right.
Tell them they worth it. They worth it. Everything in the world.
Yeah.
You wake up every day like, "All right, that's my job." 100%. That's my job. I get to do that. I don't have to. I get to.
Right, right. 100%. In my case, it brought a better version of me out, you know? Just because, you know, it's like, even when she's not around, I know that I'm somebody. I'm a little girl's father.
Yeah.
You know what I mean? And so, everything is on record regardless. And so, you know, I think that I never wanna be a hypocrite with my kids and be somebody that preach it but don't live it. You know what I mean? So it's dope, man. Like parenthood, I was pressured when I, you know, realized I was gonna be a father 'cause my life wasn't secure at that point.
Right.
You know what I mean? I was in the process of securing it, but you know, In hindsight, you know, that's probably the best thing I did was have kids, for real. You know, I'm proud of my accomplishments in music, but to know, like you said, I'm shaping humans and everything that I've used to become successful, to navigate, you know, life, I'm like, dang, I got a real prime opportunity to mold some people.
You know what I mean? Beyond all that, just from man to man, from father to father, like, learned a lot from you.
Nah, likewise, bro.
On your perspective, man, 'cause you here for, like you said, you here for a reason.
Believe that.
To hear the background and what all makes you who you are.
Special, man. Nah, thank you, bro. And likewise, you know what I mean?
Appreciate that.
You doing something major and it's bigger than, I think, music and sports. It's through sports and through music, but you know, you impacting people. You know what I mean? I say this a lot. Like, I read one time some powerful shit that I always repeat it, but it's so powerful to me that You know, they say the highest human act is to inspire.
That's strong.
You know, as humans, like, the highest thing we can do is inspire. And so, you know what I mean, to be able to say, like, you know, for a living, you know, we go out there and we inspire, that's big, you know what I mean? That's something that we should be proud of, you know?
