Who Is Nipsy Russell?

For the past two weeks, I've had this compulsion. It's taken me some time to even realize that it's a pattern. Even without being aware of it -- when my mind wanders -- I repeat this name over and over again in my head: Nipsy Russell Nipsy Russell Nipsy Russell Nipsy Russell -- until I suddenly realize that I'm doing it and I think (or blurt out loud), "Who is Nipsy Russell?"
I feel like he (or she?) was an actor on an old sitcom from the 70's. Like Good Times or The Jeffersons or What's Happenin' or something.
I have no idea how Nipsy Russell slipped into my lexicon. All I know is repeating the name over and over has a soothing effect. Try it. There's something about the name that just rolls off the tongue (or the mind). It's like sticking a key in a lock and feeling all the teeth give in. Nipsy Russell. Ah, like the balm of Gilead. Like a cool rag on a hot brow. Like mother's milk. Like lollipops and ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.
Maybe it doesn't matter who Nipsy Russell is (or was, the bastard could be dead for all I know), maybe it just matters what Nipsy Russell means to me. Not just some compulsively repeated name, a key into some back door in my gray matter.
It has the same effect on me that The Litany Against Fear has on Paul Atreides in Dune:

I shall not Fear
Fear is the mind killer
Fear is the little death that brings on total oblivion
I shall face my fear
I shall allow it to pass over me and through me
Then I shall look with the inner eye
Where the Fear has gone there will be nothing
Only I shall remain.

Or in my case:

Nipsy Russell Nipsy Russell Nipsy Russell
Nipsy Russell
Nipsy Russell Nipsy Russell
Nipsy
Russell
Nipsy Russell Nipsy Russell
Nipsy Russell
Nipsy Russell