THE JOURNEY TO 124

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If you had told the younger version of me that one day one of my greatest influences would be a member of the Rolling 60s Crips from South Central Los Angeles, I probably would have laughed.

I grew up in Wheeling, Illinois, 60090. I was the kid who loved computers, science, biology, engineering, debate, and eventually artificial intelligence. While other kids memorized sports statistics or dreamed about becoming professional athletes, I found myself fascinated by systems, ideas, and the process of building things from nothing. Looking back, I realize I have always been more interested in understanding why something works than simply admiring the finished product.

On paper, there was almost nothing connecting my life to Ermias Asghedom, the man the world came to know as Nipsey Hussle. Yet the older I become, the more convinced I am that wisdom does not ask for your ZIP code before it speaks. Some of life's greatest teachers arrive from places we never expected to look, and some of the most meaningful lessons come from people we will never have the opportunity to meet.

What drew me to Ermias was never the mythology surrounding him. It wasn't gang culture. It wasn't celebrity. It wasn't even the music, at least not for long. It was the way he thought. I found myself listening to his interviews as carefully as I listened to lectures while earning my engineering degree. He spoke about ownership, branding, vertical integration, investing, patience, and building something that would continue serving people long after you were gone. Those conversations sounded less like interviews with a rapper and more like conversations with an entrepreneur who happened to express himself through music.

That mindset resonated with me because I recognized it.

Long before I returned to graduate school, I had spent years organizing events, producing records, building websites, writing business plans, and experimenting with ideas that many people around me did not fully understand. Today, that same curiosity has led me into artificial intelligence, research surrounding orbital debris, entrepreneurship, and documenting my journey through these essays. Looking back, I realize I wasn't simply listening to another artist. I was listening to another builder.

One of the moments that fascinated me most had nothing to do with music itself. It had everything to do with how Ermias and his team thought about value.

“V For Victory” → The Marathon Clothing (Support The Royal Homies at TMC 🏁)

When Marathon Clothing launched its smart merchandise, buying a hoodie or a T-shirt became something more than a retail purchase. By scanning the technology embedded within the garment, customers unlocked music and exclusive content connected to that specific item. Even more impressive, that library continued growing over time. The purchase wasn't finished when you walked out of the store. It evolved.

I remember seeing that and immediately smiling.

Years earlier, during my default_one days in Chicago, I had been thinking along similar lines. Whenever someone purchased a ticket to one of our Metro events, we included a complimentary CD featuring artists such as The Advent, Rino Cerrone, Steve Rachmad, and many of the DJs performing that evening. I never wanted people to leave with only the memory of a great night. I wanted them to take a piece of the culture home with them. Looking back, we were asking the same question from entirely different worlds: How do you create something that continues giving long after the original transaction has ended?

His team had technology that allowed them to answer that question in ways I could not at the time, but the philosophy felt remarkably familiar. Innovation often appears unnecessary until everyone wishes they had thought of it first.

That realization also reminded me of another lesson I have learned repeatedly throughout my own life. Being early and being wrong often feel exactly the same.

I embedded this mix because it feels like the soundtrack to everything you'll read below.

"118 – DJ Mani Midi: Ode to Ermias Tha GREAT DJ Mix" is my personal tribute to Ermias "Nipsey Hussle" Asghedom and the marathon mindset he shared with the world. Blending motivational energy, classic West Coast influence, and boom bap undertones, this session reflects the discipline, ownership, patience, and long-term thinking that have influenced my own journey as a DJ, engineer, entrepreneur, and lifelong student.

This isn't meant to imitate Nipsey. It's meant to honor the principles he stood for. Every transition and every record was selected with that purpose in mind.

As always, thank you to DJHITS on YouTube for helping preserve so much incredible music culture and for providing the inspiration behind many of the records featured in this tribute.

People have questioned why I number every DJ mix. They have wondered why I continue writing these essays. They did not always understand why I returned to school later in life or why I became so interested in solving problems like orbital debris. Building companies around ideas that have not yet become industries can look impractical to people who measure success only by immediate results. Over time, however, I have learned that meaningful work often requires years of patient construction before anyone else recognizes what you are building.

That may be why The Marathon became much more than an album title to me. It became a philosophy.

Another part of Ermias' story that has stayed with me is the role his family played in protecting the vision. Blacc Sam was not simply his brother. He became one of the people entrusted with helping transform ideas into something durable. Watching that relationship unfold over the years made me think about my own life in ways I had never expected.

Before I was born, my parents lost my older brother while visiting family in India. It became one of those stories that quietly shapes a family across generations. I never had the opportunity to know him, and there is no way of knowing what our relationship might have looked like. Even so, I occasionally wonder what it would have been like to have an older brother walking beside me through life. Perhaps we would have challenged one another. Perhaps we would have built companies together. Perhaps we simply would have understood one another in ways that only siblings can.

There are no answers to those questions, only reflections.

What I do know is that much of my own journey has required learning how to trust ideas before anyone else believed in them. That experience has made me appreciate people who build together, protect one another's vision, and understand that meaningful work is rarely accomplished alone.

There was another discovery that affected me more deeply than I expected.

Years ago, my grandfather taught me that names matter. He believed they carried meaning, purpose, and sometimes even direction for a person's life. At the time I listened respectfully, but I never fully appreciated the depth of what he was trying to teach me. The older I become, the more often I find myself returning to those conversations.

When I eventually learned that Ermias is commonly understood to mean "God will rise" or "God will uplift," I stopped and thought about it for a long time.

My own name, Manish, comes from Sanskrit and is commonly understood to mean "God of the mind" or "one guided by divine wisdom." Whether someone views those meanings as spiritual, symbolic, or simply linguistic is entirely their own decision. I only know how those discoveries felt to me.

Here I was, a nerd from 60090 who had spent his life trying to understand ideas, finding himself profoundly influenced by someone whose own name speaks of God rising. Perhaps that is coincidence. Perhaps it is providence. I have reached a point in my life where I no longer feel compelled to separate those possibilities. Instead, I simply find myself grateful for the ways God seems to weave together lives that never physically intersect.

One of my favorite tracks from Victory Lap is "Right Hand 2 God." Every time I hear that title, I find myself reflecting on all the moments throughout my own journey that seem too thoughtfully arranged to dismiss as random. My faith has grown considerably over the past several years, and with that growth has come a greater appreciation for the possibility that God often places teachers in our lives without either person ever realizing the impact they have had on the other.

Ermias never knew the nerd from 60090. He never knew there was a DJ, an engineer, an entrepreneur, and now an AI researcher who would spend years listening not only to his music but also to the principles beneath it. Yet influence does not require an introduction. Sometimes another person's example quietly changes the trajectory of your life without either of you ever meeting.

This essay is not really about Nipsey Hussle.

It is an ode to Ermias.

After I finished the mix, something happened that made the tribute feel even more meaningful. On Mixcloud, 118 – DJ Mani Midi: Ode To Ermias Tha GREAT DJ Mix reached #2 in West Coast Hip Hop, #3 in Gangsta Rap, #5 in Trap, and #93 in Hip Hop globally. For a kid from 60090 making an ode to Ermias, that felt like a quiet nod from the universe. Maybe the message found the audience it was supposed to find. I do not take that lightly. This mix was not made to imitate anyone. It was made to honor the mindset, discipline, and marathon philosophy that helped shape me from a distance.

It is a thank-you to a builder who reminded me that ownership matters, that discipline outlasts hype, that patience compounds, and that meaningful work is often invisible long before it becomes undeniable. Most of all, it is a reminder that God has a remarkable way of connecting people across different neighborhoods, different cultures, and different walks of life through ideas that endure.

Perhaps my grandfather was right.

Perhaps names really do matter.

The marathon continues. 🏁

Share this post and honor the people whose example reminds us to build with purpose, patience, and conviction.

Manish Miglani | Mani
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Techno Artist. AI Innovator. Building Sustainable Futures in Music, Space, Health, and Technology.
CEO & Co-Founder: MaNiverse Inc. & Nirmal Usha Foundation
Website: http://www.manimidi.com
My YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/@djmanimidi
Book an Appointment: https://calendly.com/manish-miglani/30min
UIC Work: Master's in Engineering with an AI/ ML Focus (Graduated Aug 2025)
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QoTD: “Treat the garbage man with the same respect as given to the CEO." - Manish Miglani, Clean It Up LLC
Must Read: https://futurism.com/space/statistic-kessler-syndrome-crash-clock

118 - Ode To Ermias 🏁 💙

117 - Built Anyway 🏗️ 🏁