Stevie Wonder performs Tears in Heaven at the Nipsey Hussle Memorial

25 Grammy Award-winning singer, Stevie Wonder honored Nipsey Hussle’s life and fulfilled the deceased rapper’s wish by singing in his memorial held at the Staples Center on April 12, 2019.

After Nipsey Hussle’s family and girlfriend Lauren London paid their tributes to the late rapper at the Staples Center, Stevie Wonder took the stage.

He mentioned,

I had the pleasure through someone I was very close to … who arranged a meeting for myself to have a meeting with him for us to talk,

It is a heartbreak to again lose a member of our family. It is a heartbreak because it’s so unnecessary.

Wonder then appealed for gun control and gang-related violence.

We, to be a civilized nation, civilized world, we still are living in a time where ego, anger, jealousy is controlling our lives. It is so painful to know that we don’t have enough people taking a position that says: ‘Listen, we must have stronger gun laws. It’s unacceptable,'

Wonder added,

It’s almost like the world is becoming blind. … I pray that we grow; I pray that the leaders who have a responsibility to perpetuate life will do it by making sure that the laws will make it so very hard for people to have guns and to take their frustrations out.

Wonder then sang Rocket Love, followed by Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven, which he ended by saying,

Love you, Nipsey. God bless you.

Hours before the memorial, The Blast informed the world that Stevie would be performing Rocket Love, a single from his 1980 album Hotter Than July.

Stevie Wonder's performance fulfilled Nipsey’s longtime wish, which he had mentioned in his 2016 single Ocean Views.

The lyrics for the song goes like,

Then when I die, blue rag around my rifle/ Hunnid thousand in my coffin, that’s just light dough, 

Play a Stevie Wonder song, smoke some flight bro/ Crack a pint of Act then pour in some Sprite bro.

Rapper Nipsey Hussle, 33, died on March 31, 2019, after suffering gunshot wounds to his head and torso.