6ix9ine

About

6ix9ine, also known as Tekashi69, is the pseudonym of Daniel Hernandez, an American rapper from Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, who rose to fame following his 2017 hit "Gummo." As he grew popular, Hernandez' legal history became public, as well as a significant anti-fandom around him.

History

6ix9ine is the name of Daniel Hernandez, who was born May 8th, 1996, in Bushwick, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.^[1] After being expelled from school and selling marijuana, Hernandez began making music. One of his first singles, "Scum Life" was released on July 27th, 2015 and gained over 2.1 million views on YouTube (shown below).

On July 5th, 2017, Hernandez posted a picture of himself to Instagram where he had face tattoos reading 69 and rainbow hair.^[2] The image later went viral on Reddit and Twitter as a meme (shown below).

On October 8th, 2017, his biggest single to date, "Gummo," was released on YouTube, where it gained over 131 million views (shown below, left). The song was officially released on November 10th, 2017, where it reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. His following single, "Kooda," was released on December 23rd and reached number 63 (shown below, right). Both singles would be included on his first mixtape, Day69, released on February 23rd, 2018. The mixtape would also receive a deluxe edition released as Day69: Graduation Day on April 10th, featuring a new song, "Gotti."

Arrest and Charges

On November 18th, 2018, Hernandez and members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods gang, which Hernandez is allegedly associated with, were arrested by New York police on charges of racketeering. He was denied bail the following day. On November 20th, the Department of Justice released a list of the charges against Hernandez and the gang, which included counts of using violence in the aid of racketeering and possessing and discharging a firearm.^[10] The two firearms charges both have max penalties of life in prison, and the max penalties for the racketeering charges total 46 years in prison.

Online Presence

6ix9ine has a large online presence, with over 31,000 Twitter followers,^[5] 210,000 Facebook likes,^[6] and 2.9 million Instagram followers.^[7] He also has a strong anti-fandom, with several posts making fun of him posted to Reddit. A post to Reddit's /r/trashy making fun of the rapper on October 23rd, 2017, gained over 14,000 upvotes.^[8] A video of Hernandez making fun of fake jewelry only to have his own fake jewelry exposed was posted to /r/cringe on January 7th, 2018 (since deleted).

Snitching

On September 17th, 18th and 19th, 2019, American rapper Daniel "6ix9ine" Hernandez testified about his involvement with the Nine Trey Bloods gang in court.^[11] In his testimonies, 6ix9ine disclosed information on activities and members of the gang, including claims that rappers Cardi B and Jim Jones are both members of the Bloods made on September 19th.^[12]

On September 18th, an alleged recording of 6ix9ine testifying in court was leaked.^[13]

This is allegedly leaked audio of tekashi 69 in court on the stand . pic.twitter.com/hvGTEJlBrp

— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) September 18, 2019

Release Rumors

On December 13th, 2019, five days before 6ix9ine's sentencing date an attorney with Instagram handle lawyerforworkers predicted that 6ix9ine would will be released the same day as his sentencing (shown below). The Instagram videos received over 3,000 and 2,400 likes respectively in three days. Following this post several news headlines claimed that 6ix9ine would be released, citing these claims from an attorney who was not involved in the case.

Twitter users began discussing 6ix9ine's release. On December 16th, Twitter user @JKrynock^[14] tweeted, "#6ix9ine is going free Does ratting people out really reduce a ~30 yr sentence to a few months?" (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 1,400 likes in a day. That day, Twitter user @adam22^[15] called out the new reports by tweeting, "6ix9ine is #1 trending topic because of a fake news report, the number of somewhat reputable outlets I’ve seen repeating it is honestly insane" (shown below, right). The tweet received over 7,400 likes in a day.

Sentencing

On December 18th, 2019, 6ix9ine was sentenced to 24 months in prison.^[16] The sentence includes the 13 months he has already spent in prison, meaning he will be released in 11 months. He is also sentenced to five years supervised release, 300 hours community service , and a $35,000 fine. On Twitter, users joked how the sentencing coincided with Donald Trump's Impeachment Vote in the House of Representatives. User @MatthewKick posted a Snitching 6ix9ine meme conflating the events, gaining over 290 retweets and 1,600 likes (shown below, left), as did @redamnable, gaining over 1,200 retweets and 4,900 likes (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References