Rapper Anderson .Paak talks about recording with Dr Dre, absent friends Mac Miller and Nipsey Hussle, and new album Ventura
- .Paak talks about life in Los Angeles, touring and being confident in his music
- Nipsey Hussle was gunned down outside .Paak’s clothes store and his friend Mac Miller died recently
It’s rare to find Anderson .Paak without a wide smile plastered across his face. He’s the type who barrels into a room with abundant gusto, his entrance typically punctuated with a shriek of his catchphrase – “Yes, Lawd!” – delivered like a preacher shouting from the pulpit.
But today, that toothy grin is hard to come by when he arrives at the two-storey North Hollywood lair housing his studio and office.
No sooner had he returned home from a gig in Austria, where he wrapped his Andy’s Beach Club tour, than he got word that Nipsey Hussle had been killed in front of his South Los Angeles clothing store.
Still raw from his friend Mac Miller’s death seven months ago – a large portrait of the rapper rests in one room – the loss of another peer has left him shaken.
“Los Angeles got me a little vexed right now,” the 33-year-old says as he watches a steady flow of cars zip past the window.
“Nipsey was just a hero,” he continues, his voice cracking.
