Just days after Nipsey Hussle’s Hartford, Connecticut mural was defaced by a vandal, the community has come together to restore it.
On Sunday, local rapper and artist Joey Batts took to social media where he announced that he and a few dedicated community members have mended the street painting dedicated to Hussle.
"It was defaced yesterday," Batts told Hartford's Fox News affiliate. "A couple of people got word of it and I just thought it was best to fix it."
In addition to restoring the painting back to its original glory, Batts took this opportunity to reinforce the resilience of Hussle's legacy adding the rapper's tag line "The Marathon Continues" to a row of benches that line the bottom of the picture.
In the days following Hussle's passing, artists around the world decided to immortalize the Grammy-nominated rapper by using his image to beautify their respective neighborhoods. This motivated Connecticut native and acclaimed artist Corey Pane to add a painting of Nipsey to a Hartford skate park.
While the majority of people appreciated these creative eulogies, a video went viral showing a woman spray painting over Hartford's Hussle memorial last week.
This angered Nipsey's supporters and fans, but Hartford showed great restraint when reacting to the vandal's antics. Although the police have yet to arrest the suspect, this disrespect afforded Batts—who is a close friend of Pane—and his associates the opportunity to display the true impact of Hussle's message. Like the rapper preached, the Hartford community proved that peace can overcome any obstacle.
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"As a community we must band together and show negative forces that their idiotic acts and behavior will not be credited or allowed," Batts wrote under an Instagram post of the fixed mural. "No violence is needed- we just have to reshape the culture. Don’t complain about the contamination in Hartford, or the bad vibes or the weirdos... just help build up the positive people and the real ones who deserve attention."
