The marathon is still being run on Nipsey’s terms. Sitting down with his father Dawit Asghedom on the ONE 54 show, Nipsey Hussle’s brother Blacc Sam revealed that the family turned down documentary deals from Netflix and Disney worth a reported $20 million — because nobody was going to tell Ermias Asghedom’s story but his family.
Here’s how Sam tells it: Netflix came first with around $15 million for a two-episode documentary — a deal Ava DuVernay helped bring to the table. The family walked. Disney’s Onyx Collective came next with an offer north of $20 million, but the timing couldn’t be controlled, and the project got shelved. Now the family is regaining 100% of the rights, free and clear, and plans to raise the finishing money, complete the film themselves, and release it independently.
And wait until you hear what’s IN it. Sam says the archive runs deep — footage of the brothers in Africa as kids, family moments nobody has ever seen, and film shot during stretches of his life he didn’t even know was being documented until he saw it in the edit. Director One9 has already called the family’s archive one of the deepest he’s ever seen for an artist.
This isn’t new energy from Sam, either. Back in August on The Breakfast Club, he said the project had grown to eight or nine episodes, that offers had reached the “high 20s” in millions — and that it was never a money play: “There’s no level of money that can be presented to have us walk away.” The doc is being made with Marathon Films alongside LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Company.
Ownership was Nipsey’s whole sermon — own your masters, own your story, own your Marathon. Seven years on, his family is still preaching it with their actions. The marathon continues. 🏁
🎥 @one54africa — full interview on their page
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