Tekashi 6ix9ine is one of the most controversial figures in hip-hop right now. For the past year or so, it has seemed as if the rainbow-haired Brooklyn rapper has popped up in the headlines every other day: He has long-running feuds with Chief Keef, YG, and Trippie Redd, to name a few; he and his camp have been connected to multiple shootings; and, of course, he has several legal cases hanging over his head. In late October, 6ix9ine had three different court dates for three different cases in a single week: On Tuesday, October 23, he had a hearing in Brooklyn for misdemeanor assault of a police officer. On Thursday, October 25, he had a hearing in Houston, Texas for misdemeanor assault of a teenager. And on Friday, October 26, 6ix9ine faced sentencing in Manhattan, stemming from his 2015 arrest for the use of a child in a sexual performance. He was sentenced to four years of probation (with one year previously served). He was not required to register as a sex offender, but he was required to serve 1000 hours of community service, in addition to refraining from the posting or reposting of sexually explicit or violent images of women or children on social media platforms.
On November 18, 6ix9ine and several associate were arrested on federal racketeering and firearms charges. He faces a potential life sentence. He may also go to prison for violating his probation. On November 26, he pled not guilty. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for January 22, 2019 at 2 p.m. Eastern. The trial is set for Wednesday, September 4, 2019.
Here is the story of how 6ix9ine’s cases transpired and how they are all connected. This story was originally posted on October 22, before 6ix9ine was sentenced to probation in Manhattan.
On the night of February 21, 2015, then-18-year-old Daniel Hernandez (Tekashi 6ix9ine’s real name) went to a gathering at an apartment in Harlem. According to a criminal complaint filed a week and a half later (and first revealed in a Jezebel report last year), while at the apartment, he was filmed standing behind a naked girl, “making a thrusting motion with his pelvis” and “smacking her on her buttocks” while she “engages in oral sexual intercourse” with another man. In another video, the same naked girl is depicted “sitting across the laps of” 6ix9ine and the other man. In a third, the girl, now wearing a bra and underwear, sits in 6ix9ine’s lap while the other man pours liquid on her breasts. According to the criminal complaint, the videos were posted on Instagram, and reposted by 6ix9ine on his own Instagram account.
The girl was 13 years old at the time. (6ix9ine has said that he did not know how old she was, and had been led to believe she was older.) 6ix9ine was arrested on March 5, 2015 and charged with the use of a child in sexual performance.
On October 20, 2015, 6ix9ine pled guilty to the charge and accepted a plea deal. As reported by Jezebel, the plea agreement stated that in the two-year period before his sentencing date (provisionally, October 20, 2017), 6ix9ine was required to complete 300 hours of community service, attend a mental health treatment program, and write an apology letter to the girl and her family. In addition, the plea agreement prevented Hernandez from certain activities, like posting or reposting online sexually explicit or violent images of women or children. By all accounts, 6ix9ine fulfilled these obligations. Two other requirements of the plea agreement were that he complete his GED and “not commit any crime or violation during the two-year adjournment.” These have turned out to be a little trickier.
According to the District Attorney of New York County, 6ix9ine has violated the terms of his plea agreement because he has been arrested and charged with crimes on two separate occasions in 2018. Should the Court agree with the D.A. that Hernandez has violated his agreement, he faces one-to-three years in a New York state prison and will be required to register as a sex offender. The crux of the D.A.’s argument is that although October 20, 2017 has come and gone, the plea agreement should still be considered in effect because of several postponements to the sentencing date. 6ix9ine’s team, on the other hand, is arguing that since all of the arrests happened after October 20, 2017, they shouldn’t count.
6ix9ine’s sentencing date, in fact, has been pushed back 19 times since the day he pled guilty. Court proceedings, obtained by Pitchfork, show that at least three of those times were because his lawyer asked for more time for 6ix9ine to complete his GED. He did complete it, but not until April 2018, almost six months after the original deadline.
On December 5, 2018, it was reported that a judge revoked 6ix9ine’s probation. The rapper was given credit for time served and will not have to do 1,000 hours of community service. The judge cited the federal racketeering and firearms charges against 6ix9ine “as a reason for the decision.”
6ix9ine’s music career took off in earnest at the end of last year. On December 2, 2017, his now-platinum single “GUMMO” first appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, eventually peaking at No. 12. It was followed by a string of hits that racked up hundreds of millions of YouTube views, including “BEBE,” “Gotti,” and “FEFE,” the Nicki Minaj collaboration that peaked at No. 3.
Shortly after “GUMMO” peaked, 6ix9ine found himself in trouble in Houston. On January 6 at the Galleria Mall, he was noticed by a 16-year-old boy, who tried to take a video of him. 6ix9ine allegedly yelled at the teenager to erase the video and grabbed him by the neck, “causing small scratch marks and pain,” according to court documents viewed by Pitchfork. Further, 6ix9ine’s “body guards began to surround him in an intimidating way, also yelling at him.” The teenager erased the video “to not get hurt again.” He later called the police.
On May 10, 6ix9ine was officially charged with misdemeanor assault in Harris County, Texas. According to TMZ, at an October 18 hearing, the teenage boy showed up to court of his own volition, allegedly to tell 6ix9ine’s lawyer that he does not want to see 6ix9ine prosecuted. Nevertheless, the case, prosecuted by the state of Texas, will continue. 6ix9ine did not attend an October 25 pre-trial conference, Harris County records show. (It’s the day before he’s due back in court in New York.) The next date in the case, a disposition, is currently scheduled for Thursday, December 20, 2018.
This May, with misdemeanor assault charges now hanging over his head in Texas, 6ix9ine quickly found himself in more trouble in Brooklyn. On the afternoon of May 20, 6ix9ine illegally parked in front of a fire hydrant while allegedly driving with a suspended license, according to court records obtained by Pitchfork. As a result, he was charged with two misdemeanors: operating a vehicle without a license and facilitating aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
The next morning, at the 77th Precinct of the NYPD in Brooklyn, 6ix9ine was charged with five more crimes after an incident with a police officer. What allegedly transpired is somewhat strange: Court records state that 6ix9ine was instructed to take off “already unlocked handcuffs,” but refused to oblige. He then allegedly “grabbed and squeezed” the officer’s hand against his handcuffs to keep the officer from taking them off and “refused to let go despite repeated requests by the [police officer] to do so.” The incident caused the police officer “to suffer swelling and redness to [his] fingers and, to suffer substantial pain, to fear further physical injury.” He ultimately faced four misdemeanor charges stemming from the incident: third-degree assault, third-degree attempted assault, third-degree menacing, and second-degree obstructing governmental administration. On November 14, 6ix9ine pled guilty to “disorderly conduct” and received a sentence of conditional discharge.
The Manhattan D.A. believes that Hernandez’s failure to receive his GED by October 2017 and his consistent requests for more time have made the otherwise-expired plea deal still effective. In letters sent to the judge, the D.A. argued that the alleged crimes committed this year qualify as violations of the plea agreement. The D.A. also argued that 6ix9ine is a self-professed Blood gang member. (6ix9ine has alluded to being a Blood in songs like “BILLY” and “Blood Walk.”) In addition, the letter states, “[6ix9ine] also uses social media to start feuds with other artists, repeatedly inviting his rivals and others to use violence.” For all of these reasons, the D.A. believes he should be sentenced to prison and required to register as a sex offender.
Further, the D.A. connects 6ix9ine to two shootings to argue that he should not be considered a Youthful Offender. In an October 19, 2018 letter to the judge (obtained by Pitchfork), the D.A. notes that 6ix9ine’s “close associate” was arrested and indicted in connection with a shooting that occurred at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in April 2018. The D.A. notes that 6ix9ine posted a video to Instagram in which he is “laughing and joking” about the shooting.
The other incident is the shooting of Chief Keef in New York City on June 2, 2018. The D.A. states that, in an Instagram video, 6ix9ine is “taking credit for his role in the shooting and implying that although he was expecting retaliation for the shooting, [6ix9ine] would remain unharmed.”
The D.A. writes plainly in the letter: “[6ix9ine] has failed to mature into the law-abiding adult anticipated by the plea agreement which he signed on October 20, 2015.”
The 2015 plea agreement reads: “Whether the defendant is determined to have violated the terms and conditions of his agreement is at the sole discretion of the Prosecutor.” And the D.A. has made it abundantly clear that his office believes 6ix9ine violated his plea deal. If the judge ends up agreeing with the D.A., then Tekashi 6ix9ine could be sentenced to prison and listed as a registered sex offender as early as the end of this week.
This article was originally published on Monday, October 22 at 1:39 p.m. Eastern. It was last updated on Monday, December 5 at 7:07 p.m. Eastern.
