Homeric Similes, also known as Epic Similes, are elaborate comparisons between two different objects using like or as.
1: "I drove my weight on it from above and bored it home like a shipwright bores his beam with a shipwright’s drill that men below, whipping the strap back and forth, whirl and the drill keeps twisting, never stopping, so we seized our stake with it fiery tip and bored it round and round in the giant’s eye"
2: “It’s crackling roots blazed and hissed, as a blacksmith plunges a glowing ax or adze in an ice-cold bath and the metal screeches steam and its temper hardens, that’s the iron’s strength, so the eye of Cyclops sizzled round that stake.”
Answer:
He meant that painting murals of the rapper was their own way of honoring him and showing their respects.
Explanation:
In the article Street art of Nipsey Hussle in LA Breathes Life into Legacy the author mentioned the ways different people were grieving and making memorials for the dead rapper Nipsey Hussle, he mentioned that while the rapper's colleagues were using words to praise him, for others like Levi Ponce "paint was how they paid homage".
To pay homage means to express deep respect or to honor somebody or something.
So, the author just meant to say that painting was their (Ponce and others) way of honoring Nipsey Hussle, that is by painting murals and street art in his memory.
