Original subtitles

dramatic music

[reporter] Tekashi 6ix9ine has made a name for himself

creating controversy and speculation.

[reporter] Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine is in

federal custody.

[reporter] ...a shooting in Midtown early this evening.

Tonight, we're learning it is connected

to a controversial rapper.

[reporter] Tekashi 6ix9ine, a Brooklyn-based rapper

whose real name is Daniel Hernandez,

denied bail.

[reporter] If convicted, he faces 32 years to life

in prison.

[interviewer] First of all, should I call you

Danny or Tekashi?

-[Danny] Danny. -[interviewer] Danny.

[Danny] Yeah.

[interviewer] What's the difference between the two?

[Danny] The difference is that no one ever seen Danny.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

Everyone, you know, is based off Tekashi 6ix9ine,

the colored, trash-talking, troll king rapper.

A lot of people just see that.

The world literally hates waking up and seeing this face.

Y'all hate it.

I'm the most successful nigga in the fucking game.

Why? 'Cause I don't give a fuck,

and I tell everyone to suck my dick.

So if you watching this video, suck my fucking dick.

If you my fans, I love you,

but everybody else, suck my fucking dick.

A lot of people always take the world too serious.

And I feel like the world is a game.

You know how people say,

"Play the game before it plays you"?

In the world we live in,

the nice guys don't get the coverage.

The nice guys don't get the attention.

The nice guys don't go anywhere.

[laughter]

It's kind of like a fetish that a human has.

They don't like something,

but they can't stop watching it.

It's like the Joker, right?

You wanna hate him, but you love him,

you know what I'm saying, because he's the bad guy,

but you just end up falling in love with him.

You consistently say, "I hate this guy,"

but you can't stop watching that guy.

You can't help yourself.

There's somewhere deep down

where you fall in love with that guy.

The good is here, but in my situation,

you know, the bad has taken over.

[reporter] A shooting near the Barclays--

[reporter] Shooting in Midtown--

[reporter] Racketeering and firearms charges...

Ba-ba-boom! Nigga, we got him!

I...can't...be...stopped!

[footsteps]

tense music

[children shouting]

Earth, Wind & Fire's "That's the Way of the World"

'70s R&B music

[Sara] I'm from Brooklyn, New York.

Born and raised in Bushwick.

I'm 24 years old.

I'm a single mother of a five-year-old.

Social media was really big for me

around the time that I was in high school.

Facebook was really my phase.

I started social media.

At the time, I was probably, like, 12.

You know, little messenger shit

like AIM and stuff like that.

Danny messaged me, hit me up, off of Facebook.

Think it went something along the lines, like, "Hi.

Do you know Chris? That's my friend or whatever."

Blah, blah, blah, "I think we know the same people.

My name's Danny, by the way."

I've seen him before tagged in pictures.

I liked him, so I was talking to my friends about him like,

"I haven't met him yet, and I like him.

We talk every day."

Especially being young, that's all you know.

It's like, you, like, can't put your phone down.

The first time we linked up, I had cut school.

That was the first time we kissed.

All we did was kiss though.

I thought it was, like... something so magical.

I'm like, "Oh, my God."

My mom, she's like, "That's your boyfriend?"

I'm like, "Yes."

She's like, "You're gonna bring the boy here.

We're gonna talk to him." I'm like, "Okay."

So he came to the house.

He was just happy to even be around.

He just fed off the energy.

Like, "Oh, this is what family do?"

Like, for him, it was foreign 'cause he didn't have it.

Of course. He didn't get to have a childhood.

[music slows to a stop]

[producer] So you'll just pop right there.

-[Daniel] Sit down here? -Yeah.

All right.

somber music

You know?

You know what I'm saying?

[Sara] Danny is a little boy

who just wants love,

who's funny, charismatic.

That's who Danny is.

speaking Spanish

somber music

[man] speaking Spanish

heavy music

[Sara] He would take me to school every day.

He was dropping me off to school one day and he said,

"Do you wanna be my girlfriend?"

As cheesy as--I'm like--

at, like, 8:00 in the morning, I'm like...

I ran to school so happy.

I was like, "I think I got a boyfriend now,

so don't talk to me."

[laughs]

He would go to therapy,

so after school, I would meet him

and we would walk to his therapy.

He had, like, anger management.

He started opening up more

about his upbringing,

his stepfather, and how it affected him.

He covers it very well.

You have to really be on the inside

and really get to know him

to see that there's something wrong.

[camera lens clicks]

[Danny] No one ever seen

just the regular old Mexican, Puerto Rican kid

from Bushwick, New York.

My biological dad left.

[Danny] After that, I was scared.

And I had no money. I was poor.

What am I supposed to do now?

I would sleep with my mom.

I would go to sleep with my stomach hurt,

and my mom, she would lay over and just cry because she hear

how screeching my stomach would get.

Like, you know what I mean? It was bad.

My stepdad came into my life,

but I didn't know, though, he wasn't my real dad.

He never judged me.

Even if I did something wrong on the baseball field,

'cause he was my baseball coach,

he'd be like, "Nah, nah, you did nothing wrong."

It was just always a positive thing with him.

I felt like my step-pops was a superhero.

He was always that good person.

Like, he was helping people

without thinking about himself.

I've got you.

[Danny] That's what a superhero does,

and that's what my stepfather did.

When I was younger, I didn't have a TV,

so the only way I could watch movies

is if my step-pop would take me to a movie theater.

You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

[person screams]

[Danny] It was cheap, so we would go there,

watch movies, and I was always into film.

I was like, "Yo, like, that shit is cool."

Like, you know what I mean?

"Those look like fucking villains."

Hello, Amanda.

You don't know me, but I know you.

I want to play a game.

Live or die.

Make your choice.

tense music

[Danny] I was 13.

My stepdad asked me to go to the supermarket with him.

I was like, "No, I don't wanna go. Just go."

Never came back.

[horns honking]

-[slice] -[siren wails]

[tires squeal]

He got murdered a block away from my crib.

It was broad day. 2:00 p.m.

I felt like my step-pops was invincible,

so when they took him from me, I felt naked.

I was 13. I weighed, like, 150 pounds.

I dropped to, like, 90. I was really dying.

I didn't shower in, like, two months.

I just started bugging in school.

I got expelled in eighth grade.

I just started trapping with my brothers.

It just makes me angry, you know what I'm saying?

Superheroes always die.

Fuck being a superhero.

I wanna be a villain. The villains never die.

heavy music

[Giancarlo] There's a fine line

between a superhero and a supervillain.

It starts when we're young.

Everyone's a good person at first, right?

We start as blank slates.

Good people who just wanna feel the love

the world has to offer.

But then fucked up shit happens.

foreboding music

We see things.

-We hear things. -[brush whirs]

We develop memories and thoughts

about the world around us

from our childhood experiences,

and for some, these experiences sting.

They hurt.

They're mental scars that can't be repaired,

and they change a person forever.

For superheroes, they use this trauma for good.

But supervillains channel the trauma

into something bigger.

Something that becomes an unstoppable force

propelling them through life,

disregarding anything or anyone

that comes in their way.

Ha!

Ah!

[indistinct chatter]

[Sara] There's a psychological way

of, like, understanding how he works.

When he lost his dad, he felt like he was

a kid who was just lost, had a fucked-up childhood,

never really belonged nowhere,

never had any type of love growing up,

so everything he's ever done is for attention.

He's an attention-seeker,

and it's from the lack of love he had growing up.

He's addicted to fame, to the attention.

He has to be talked about.

I was a very supportive girlfriend.

I just thought he was being different

and very innovative.

Like, nobody is doing this shit.

Like, oh, my God.

I thought he fucking fell from the sky.

I'm like, "He's so different.

Look at his clothes that he makes."

It's like, "I love it."

I would go with him, go get clothes and stuff like that,

I would do his hair.

And it's just like,

"I'ma have faith in him

'cause I know it's gonna be something."

Even if he wanted to put me in it one time

just to take pictures, goes to the city real quick,

"Can you model this?" "All right, I'll do that."

I'll put the fucking oversized HIV shirt on my back

just so you can take a picture.

We never could have come this far

Mm-hmm

I took the good times

I'll take the bad times

I'll take you just the way you are

[music distorting]

[train rumbling]

[Lucas] If you've lived in any big city,

especially New York, you get to know your bodega guy.

Like, I was there-- I got my morning coffee there.

When I come home drunk from the bars,

I could get my snack or my pint of ice cream.

Like, you just-- you develop a relationship.

[camera lens snaps]

And Danny was my bodega guy.

uneasy music

At that time, I was getting a lot of traction for Hanksy.

Hanksy was just a joke.

I took art of Banksy,

and then I just combined it

with America's most lovable actor, Tom Hanks,

and made Hanksy.

I was going viral and I was getting a lot of followers.

So he would be hitting me up,

like, "Hey, man, check out my video.

Please post my shit."

One day, he says, "Adam, I got a new clothing line."

And then he showed me.

It was like HIV in big, white letters,

and, like, just really... things that I'm...

kinda like, "What are you doing, man?"

[indistinct chatter]

[Ottoneil] speaking Spanish

[Frank] speaking Spanish

[Danny] Hey, you know, like,

I'm not trying to be a dick or nothing,

but it's gotta be a hundred percent perfect.

Any creator, whether you're a rapper

or a clothing designer or a visual artist,

until you get your break,

you're constantly trying to get noticed.

Before social media and these platforms came about,

I mean, how were you gonna get famous?

This unreachable thing.

And then now, all of a sudden, here we are.

Moo, yah

[Lucas] With the power to go viral

or gain a little taste

of that micro-fame overnight.

Now that is accessible to you, to me, to everybody

with a camera on our phone.

[yodeling]

[Lucas] Social media is a very good tool.

It's beautiful.

I just think you need to be able

to pick and choose how you use it.

If you are able to utilize that

for your own gain or notoriety,

you can get a lot of traction,

but for a lot of these kids, it is only about popularity.

[screams]

[Lucas] And reaching the top,

getting as many followers as you can,

whatever it takes.

And I think that's the dangerous part

with, like, social media and platforms like that

is that once you get a taste of it,

you want more and more and more and more and more.

'Cause it is such a law of diminishing returns.

You wanna do more and more and more

to keep that momentum going.

So you just keep doing shocking things.

It's a way of thinking.

If you don't keep a good head on your shoulders,

man, it can go--you can spiral out of control.

[laughs]

[person] Kiss his face there.

Take your time with it.

[Sara] At first, it started off with the clothes.

Like, "Oh, they're gonna model my clothes."

Everything had to have

some type of shock value to it, you know?

-Yeah, so, you're only 14? -[laughter]

-Got that little Mexican cunt. -[laughter]

[Sara] So it's just like,

"What's gonna get me reposted

and get me lit super quick?"

Nobody's really suplexing girls on camera.

Nobody's really pretending to have sex with 'em.

Nobody's really doing this.

And he would do it, and I would bitch about it,

and he'd be like, "But look how fast it got reposted.

I'm on Worldstar. Snoop Dogg reposted me.

This person reposted me. That person reposted me."

It's just like, "You're spending all your time

doing all of this just to get reposted,

just to have some type of clout."

intense musical buildup

Let me pull up the "ScumLife" one.

This is the one that most people talk about

'cause it's the only one left.

They took down all the videos.

I knew he was special right away

from the first video I saw.

Everyone was trying to look

for the next Instagram star rapper

that tries to go viral.

You know, I've been grinding for years.

Always just working on beats and shit.

Always trying to improve.

And I found him on Twitter.

I was like, "Bro, I fucking love it.

Let's work."

He was into music. He didn't--I knew for a--

like, he didn't really listen to a lot of rap.

dramatic musical sting

[Danny] I didn't like rap.

I was always into rock.

I grew up on Parkway Drive, All That Remains,

Breaking Benjamin, heavy metal.

I didn't wanna rap.

I don't think I'm that talented, right?

There's people working UPS that rap better than me.

But one thing that my talent is, it's not rapping.

My talent is like a visionary.

And I think no one is better than me at it.

So when I rap,

I try to entertain as best as possible.

So me rapping and--

it's not because I have a talent at rapping, right,

or have a talent in metaphors or anything.

It's, how good can I entertain?

But everything I do has a reason.

I take steps. Like, I know where I'm going.

Every time.

[camera lens snaps]

[Jordan] I was his first producer ever.

I was the first one like, "All right,

I'm gonna work with you, I'm in the studio with you,

I'm making beats just for you,"

and that's how we built it.

Fuck around with them fuck arounds

You gon' fuck around and get smoked, rrah!

[Jordan] And then the first one we did,

we put "Shinigami" first.

Get your hustle on with them hustle-lords

And I promise you'll get dough

You talk a lot, you a chatterbox

But real niggas lay low

Represent your gang, nigga, throw it up

I don't give a fuck where you at, nigga

Throw it up, throw it up

Represent your gang, nigga, scum life

I don't give a fuck where you at, nigga

Scum life

Every few months, he'll put out a video with a song,

and that was his thing.

He never just put out the song on SoundCloud.

He always had visuals for it.

He just wanted to be seen.

[hums] Hurry up.

[indistinct chatter]

tense music

I always put heroin scenes in my videos

because that's what I grew up watching.

What really takes off for me

is seeing the videos, the visuals.

[Jordan] It was so fucking raw.

You had a dude shoot up heroin in your fucking music video?

Who does that?

That's the most insane fucking shit.

[Lucas] He was still just the neighborhood kid.

I think the biggest reaction I got

was when he shut down our block,

he rented a bunch of, you know, flashy sport cars,

and he shot a music video.

[producer] Danny, Danny. Just rap this, all right?

[Lucas] I was impressed by this kid

who was able to organize this whole production

and set up, and the block was impressed.

You know, everyone's out and there was energy,

and I'm like, "That's cool, man.

Good job, dude."

[Ottoneil] speaking Spanish

[Frank] speaking Spanish

[Lucas] I think he's a smart kid.

He's a fully-formed creative doing the wildest shit.

He was in it for the shock and awe.

intense musical build-up

[computer whirs down]

[Adam 22] The thing that separates me

from, like, the top personalities in rap

is that I'm somebody who focuses

on covering the underground.

Like, me and my group chats

with like a lot of my friends

is us sending pictures back and forth from Instagram

or sending, like, random song snippets

back and forth to each other of, like,

"Can you believe what this dude

who has 6,000 followers just did?"

There's an element of like people-watching

and sort of just being interested

in the roots of what's going on here.

Nigga, where they do that at?

When the MAC clap, it's a dooby wrap

It's a jack move, black, so you better run that

[Adam 22] I remember part of what I thought of

when I first saw him.

I remember thinking, "This guy's got

a little bit of star power."

[laughing, muttering]

[Adam 22] I definitely thought he had

something going for him.

When you look at the whole 6ix9ine thing,

a lot of it has to do with just the incentives

that we've created in our society.

Like, we live in an attention economy.

Lil Tay just got verified.

Y'all hos said I wouldn't make it,

but bitch, look, I'm verified now.

Lil Tay the youngest flexer of the century.

Bitch, I just got verified.

[groans]

[Adam 22] Now that we live in a world

where you're able to create your own platform,

I mean, you don't need any help, really.

Like, you're able to pretty much, you know,

do all of your own marketing, promotion,

and it doesn't matter if the media ignores it.

If you go out there, run for a beer,

I'll chuck it over to you with this.

[Adam 22] A large percentage of the audience

really are tuned in for the soap opera

just because in a lot of people's minds,

this is probably their best bet

at getting a glimpse into a lifestyle

that they're never gonna be able to get close to,

and it's just, like, beyond fascinating

to a lot of people.

[person] Kitty, are you stuck?

[Adam 22] People want to see the crazy shit.

People wanna see stuff where it feels like they're--

like anything could happen.

And, you know, 6ix9ine is the definition of that.

He keeps making his plotline more and more extreme.

You can't really blame people for being so tuned in.

I'm tuned in.

I'm looking down on him, but I'm still watching.

[tool buzzing]

foreboding music

[Danny] What, really, people gravitate to

is a fictional character.

I feel like I lost all my sense, right?

But when I lost all my sense, I gained all my success.

One day I woke up and I said,

"Yo, I want my look to be loud."

I felt invisible.

I just had to make a loud presence.

Danny became Tekashi because Danny created him

the way he wanted to be viewed in the world.

And in the world we live in,

that's the only thing that gets attention.

And that's what the kids that I appeal to

would love about me.

I'm the hope for those kids that can't stand up

for themselves, you know what I mean?

I'ma show them that if I can do it, they can do it,

and that's what 6ix9ine is for.

With the six and the nine,

so you sitting right across from me

and I'm here, you're still seeing a 6-9.

So my point of view with the 6-9 is,

'cause if I'm poor and you're rich,

does that make you right because you're rich

and I'm wrong because I'm poor?

It's just life from two different perspectives.

There was this tattoo artist named Takashi

from my neighborhood,

and he was this heroin addict.

He did heroin to create.

He did it to get himself in his little world.

He did it to be himself.

And that's where I got the name Tekashi from.

And that's who I am.

I'm Tekashi 6ix9ine,

and I'll build my own fucking world.

[Sara] Because I loved him so much,

I was willing to take everything that came with him.

Tattoos, the missing tooth, the craziness.

Didn't matter what he did.

He said he wanted to color his hair,

and I'm like, "Well...

not that many salons in the hood

know how to get those type of colors.

You would have to go to Williamsburg

towards the north side or something to...

these white people, these white people

do all these crazy colors on their hair.

Like, you gotta go to them.

They know how to do that stuff."

Sofi Tukker and ZHU's "Mi Rumba"

upbeat house music

Me and him walked from his house to Williamsburg

looking for different, like, hair salons,

and I was like, "You need to go here."

Call me a lover, call me a freak

I want every part of you

You want every part of me

The first time I met Danny, he was about 16 1/2.

I thought he was cool. I mean, his style was awesome.

He didn't have many tattoos.

He just had, like, the little bits of 6-9.

The first day I met him, he told me he was gonna be

a world-famous rapper.

And I just, you know, like...

was like, "Cool.

You know, that's great. Good luck."

But, you know, in New York,

you know, a lot of people say that.

[hairdryer whirring]

Changing up your hair color can change somebody's persona.

You know, bring them more to their truer self.

I think he's just his own muse.

He's the best.

You know, we chat and we're friends

and, you know, he knows I love him.

I'll defend him to the end. [laughs]

That's also, like, probably the Jewish mama in me.

I mean, since I've known him,

he's come up with the most clever things ever,

and he just, like, was like, "Becca, can you do this?"

and I was like, "Yeah."

You know, like, he would think of these things,

you know, color scheme or where he wanted it exactly,

and I would just execute it.

foreboding music

[Sara] I have family, friends saying,

"This is how he's meant?

With rainbow colored hair?"

It's just like...

I don't care.

I'll walk outside with him like that

and that's my man.

I'm holding his hand. I'm right beside him.

[Jordan] He started dying his hair rainbow.

Smartest fucking move.

You're the only rapper with long rainbow hair.

You know what I mean?

You're gonna stand out a mile away.

Again, the mind notices everything that's different.

Everyone else has regular haircuts and shit.

His hair is like-- he has a fucking rainbow perm.

How does that not stand out?

He started seeing the reception he was getting early,

and he was like, "All right, yeah.

We're taking this serious."

Even though he was, like, serious before,

I think he took it another level serious,

and he's like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go fucking hard with this."

dark music

[tool buzzing]

[Ottoneil] speaking Spanish

intense rhythm

[Jordan] He was always a creative person,

always had great ideas.

Maybe in another life, he's working in marketing.

'Cause he knows how to get a brand out there.

A lot of his moves are calculated, in a way.

Like, he knew exactly what he was doing.

He knew exactly the reaction he was gonna get.

heavy music

[Giancarlo] The trauma is where it all started.

But becoming a villain is so much more.

It requires creating a look.

Do something to yourself

that people will be forced to remember.

Because appearance is everything.

You start small,

and then it gets bigger and so fucking bizarre

that you one day look at yourself in the mirror

in disgust.

But you smile

because it's everything you ever wanted.

These motherfuckers won't forget you this time.

[indistinct chatter]

[producer] You gonna get the gloves?

-I'm scared. -Yeah, go ahead.

-[producer] You gotta let go. -Oh, I gotta let go?

[producer] No, you gotta, like, let go of the ground.

-Are you on the ground? -No, I'm on the--

[producer] His feet are on the wall.

[Danny] Should I kick off?

[producer] Can you just, like, get this shot?

[producer] Just catch that and that's it.

[Adam 22] The thing is is that 6ix9ine,

like, for a while,

he was doing sorta more punk rock type stuff.

Early on, he was doing stuff

that sorta would have allowed him

to fit more into that kind of punk world.

He decided that the way for him to get big

was not to necessarily surround himself

with this whole punk aesthetic,

but actually that the gang aesthetic

was gonna get him further.

It's not like he had,

like, an aesthetic style that he preferred.

It was a hundred percent about getting rich and famous.

tense music

[Ron] My name's Ron Barrett.

I run a gang prevention program.

Been running a gang prevention program since probably 1999.

A lot of entertainers know in this business

that if you can connect yourself as being a gangster,

that's what sells in this industry.

If you go back to the beginning of gangster rap

on the West Coast and how that flourished and boomed up,

it's the same thing on the East Coast.

You had individuals like Jim Jones and Dipset

back in the day where they were the first ones

we seen really bring this East Coast Blood stuff

to the forefront.

That sells.

Like I said, the romanticism and the gang culture

is huge with kids,

and the more clout you can have

of being connected to these individuals,

it adds to your aura.

So the more credibility you have

and the more, you know, people can,

you know, peel the layers and say,

"Well, he is from that area

and he was a member of that gang," that sells.

That sells.

uneasy music

[rap music plays over stereo]

[Seqo] My first time meeting Danny,

I hadn't seen a picture of him,

seen nothing about him,

heard anything.

You know, I'm Seqo Billy.

You know, I'm from Red Star. I'm from Brooklyn.

I'm SRG, what we call in jail. I'm labeled.

Gang. I'm Blood. You know what I'm saying?

Everywhere we go, police know I'm Blood,

so it's red, you know what I mean?

That's my thing. That's my color.

In total, I did like five and a half years.

I came home probably in one month stints.

Like, I'd be home for, like, two months

and I'd be back on a parole violation

or sometimes even a new charge.

It was a back-and-forth thing.

That shit is really a revolving door.

[indistinct radio chatter]

I got out of jail

and I started a record label.

My manager Chris was just like,

"Yo, I just want you to meet somebody."

I was mad tired,

I was aggravated over something else,

some money shit,

and I was like, "Man, I don't even wanna hear nothing.

I don't wanna meet nobody tonight.

Like, fuck, I don't care."

But he like, "Nah, you know what I'm saying?

This is how you gotta be when you in this business."

I'm like, "A'ight. Cool. Fuck it."

[train rattling]

My first time meeting Danny,

he said, "The music is dirt. Trash. Lyrics, trash.

But the videos are fire."

And I'm like, "Damn, homie.

Like, you just gonna tell niggas your shit trash?

Like, fuck it. A'ight, I feel you.

Videos must really be fire then.

A'ight."

dramatic musical flourish

Played some videos.

I was like, "A'ight, this shit is different."

It's weird, but I'm not against different or weird.

I'm not against it.

So I'm like, "Let me hear 'em all.

Let me watch this shit till the end."

So he played the videos.

I'm like, "Damn, the videos are poppin.'"

So I'm like, "Nah. This a go. This'll work.

We can do something with it."

And from then on, it's just-- we started rockin'.

Yo, that shit.

-[indistinct shouting] -[music playing over stereo]

dark music

Yo, Bris.

[Bris] Don't tell me we about to walk, bro.

Nah, bruh. Get in the Uber.

[Bris] Oh, we gonna drive?

[Danny] Yeah, yo, Bris, we here. Look.

[Bris indistinct]

Shit about to be a movie. You heard, Bris?

Ha!

[Bris] For my Nine Trey gangstas.

This for my Nine Trey gangstas!

[Seqo] Me and him had a real relationship.

I was like a big brother to that nigga.

So...

yeah, he was gang in that sense.

Now, you cool now, know what I'm saying?

You family.

I'm saying I see you, I see what you doing,

I see what you got going on,

we both focus on this, the business,

and we got a regular relationship.

But ears. Aww.

[Seqo] Feel the ears.

[upbeat music over speakers]

Yo, he popped the tags.

-[Seqo, murmuring] -[giggles]

Know what I'm saying?

[Seqo] I knew it was gonna be hard

for the streets to accept

the whole punk-rock-rap thing

or punk rap idea, 'cause that's where it was going.

That's what it looked like to me.

They said when they see me, I'ma run

I don't duck, bitch

All that talking, boy, stop

Heard you dancing, boy, stop

Need a lesson, boy, stop

That's when I was like, nah, you know what I mean?

Just give it a different feel, give it a different background,

and a different demographic.

So just...we gonna place him in this environment.

Fucking big Bloods in this bitch, what?

Niggas, niggas, niggas, niggas cosigning this whole movement.

This is what gangtivity is.

There's a type of gangtivity in this bitch.

[overlapping chatter]

[Adam 22] If you're from New York

and you're not really, like, associated with the gang thing

like that in the first place, it's like,

most of us understand that it's goofy

to, you know, squad up with a gang later in your life.

[dog barking]

A big part of why 6ix9ine wanted

to get down with the Bloods is because he felt like

if he was established with them,

he would have everything that he needed for his career.

Like, that was a huge cosign, huge step for him.

[person, muttering] ...get that shit out the way.

[Ron] Tekashi was very glamorized

by the gang culture.

They said, "Listen, we got the power to back you.

We got the muscle to back you.

No one's gonna mess with you no more.

You can utilize our name and our brand,

and as long as we're getting something

on the other end of that, that's how this game works."

[Adam 22] He wanted to not only have that protection,

but he wanted to be one of 'em.

[Ron] You're putting yourself as a member of that group,

then they're expecting something in return,

be it through violence or any type of threats.

They're expecting some monetary, you know, recoups

because, listen, we're here for you.

We're doing this for you. No one's touching you.

You're untouchable because of us.

As I speak to you today, Nine Trey is known

from the top of Maine to the bottom of Florida.

You know, the whole East Coast knows

about Nine Trey gangsters.

People know that if you mess with a group like Nine Trey

that you are gonna deal with the end result,

which was going to be violence.

intense musical build-up

-I got myself Big Star. Sup? -I'm saying.

-Who said you not good? -I don't know.

Who said he not good?

Who said they don't like him?

Who say they don't like Big Star?

[Sara] I didn't honestly know

what a Nine Trey gangster Blood--

I knew there was Bloods.

It wasn't until I was around these people

that I knew there was different types of Bloods

and all this other stuff.

Where the Billy?

-[person] Appreciation, man. -Appreciation for y'all.

[Sara] At first, I was very, like, anxious.

I asked him. I was like, "Look,

you hanging around with all these Blood guys.

Are you Blood?" And he denied it to me.

He just...

he lied.

somber music

Around that time,

our daughter was born.

He said, "We're gonna have a family,"

and, "I love you."

And I really wanted to have a good family.

I really genuinely thought

this would make him think differently.

"I want you to be a part of the baby's life.

I want you to be her father. I wanna be together.

I wanna have a family."

But not even a baby can change a person.

[Danny] When my daughter was born,

I wasn't there with my kid.

I went and I kept making music.

I tell myself,

"Am I doing this

because I'm a bad dad?"

I told my girlfriend,

I was like, "Yo, I'ma get a job.

We gonna be good. We gonna do this.

I'ma do everything that I have to do for the baby."

Everything I said I was gonna do...

...I did the fucking opposite.

dark music

[Giancarlo] Okay. So you got your look.

People are staring at you and finally taking notice.

It's everything you ever wanted.

Right?

Wrong.

The path to becoming a supervillain

is full of twists and turns.

-It's not for everyone. -[gun cocks]

You have to have a relentless mindset

that disregards the societal norms.

And when that society tries to hold you back,

you say, "Fuck it."

Because after all, to supervillains,

life is one big game.

[siren wailing in distance]

Billy up, nigga, Billy dat

Tell 'em pop out where it's litty at

Really, homie? Billy dat

Where all the 0-Trey biddies at?

Gangsta party, Fendi fact

[Seqo] I told my people that we was gonna shoot my video.

They had no idea that we were shooting a video for Danny.

Like, they didn't know him.

[person] Bro, you know the big bro out here.

[Seqo] My grandma was actually in the video.

That's her home. That's her brownstone.

And I told her, "Yo, we shooting my video.

I'ma have some people over, know what I mean?"

And she like, "A'ight, cool."

heavy rap music

Treyway

[Seqo] My shit was playing.

Some of the other homies' shit was playing.

We played a bunch of music.

But when it was time to shoot the video,

know what I'm saying, it was his video.

uneasy music

He had a bag full of bandanas.

I remember I told him,

"Yo, bro, just bring your Mexican flag, bro."

He wanted to put the red bandana on.

Said, "We do it for the video."

And we do it for the video.

Like, he felt like he was a part of something.

It was different just seeing him

and mad homies behind him.

That was big.

[Adam 22] We underrate how important

that air of danger is to rap fans.

[cheers and applause]

There is some significant portion of rap fans

that might not be able

to identify this about themselves,

but they basically are watching it

because they want--

they're basically watching, like, death porn.

'Cause if your video's filled with guns and drugs,

then it's kinda like, you really are

putting your life on the line on a consistent basis.

Like, they wanna watch something

where there's a real chance of somebody perishing,

and that--it feels so real to them in their head,

and it's like a really kinda gross instinct.

If he had been doing the "GUMMO" video

with like him and three of his Hispanic homies

on the block in Brooklyn, then, like, I don't know

that it necessarily would have done as much for him,

but when you have him with 40 dudes in red bandanas

on the block,

I mean, there's a lot of people in hip-hop

that are gonna bite onto that because that just--

it feels real, it feels dangerous.

It feels like, you know, he's really out here and...

I mean, he knew.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

Scum Gang!

"GUMMO" playing

heavy rap music

I see y'all niggas

Say what?

Pop these niggas like a wheelie, nigga

You a silly nigga

In the hood with them Billy niggas

And them Hoover niggas

tense music

[Lucas] I was watching this video.

Here's this guy with this rainbow hair.

And I actually had seen, you know, memes

of this rapper before.

Rainbow hair and the shiny teeth

and the tattoos and...

but I looked at him like, "What the heck?

Is that Danny? That's fucking Danny?

The bodega boy?"

I was impressed.

Like, from the deli

to a number one hit?

Like, that doesn't happen all the time.

-[cohost] He has rainbow hair. -[Joe] Yeah.

[cohost] He's got a rainbow grill.

[Joe] Jamie forced me into watching him.

He's got a rainbow grill now. That's new, right?

[cohost] He has a tattoo of 69 on his face.

He looks Mexican to me, but he's claiming--

I think he's claiming he's Black, right?

-[Joe] No. Puerto Rican. -'Cause he says the N-word...

-[Joe] Yeah. -All the time.

[Brendan] My name is Brendan Klinkenberg,

senior editor at Rolling Stone.

I first heard of Tekashi

when every other day, someone was coming to me

and being like, "You've gotta see this."

[camera lens snaps]

He had a really firm grasp of

a way to shock the viewer

but not make you want to look away.

I think the tattoos and the hair and the grills

all are immediately, like--

regardless of how you end up feeling about him,

people remember the first time they saw him.

He did a lot that, uh, warranted attention.

I'm good in my hood.

Niggas love me in my town.

Quit trying to get me to get y'all self some money,

'cause y'all niggas be broke.

He said the N-word as punctuation.

I assume that that's partially because

he doesn't wanna come up with words to rhyme.

People are well within their rights

if they are personally offended by that.

He exploited a very specific emotional response

to become extraordinarily popular

extraordinarily quickly.

[laughing]

[Brendan] In an effort to get clout

and sell his persona as this dangerous rapper,

he was recruiting these gang members

to, like, let them be window dressing

in his music videos.

You need one hit for people to coalesce around,

and "GUMMO" was that for Tekashi.

It's such a strong introduction to him.

Once he becomes famous,

he's just another one of these characters in hip-hop.

[cheers and applause]

A lot of artists and celebrities,

but rappers in particular, are larger than life.

They're these people who you recognize on sight,

and you also know their stories

as soon as you start to listen to them.

It's still a story-telling genre,

and there's a lot of ways to tell stories.

People start to operate in these roles.

You have someone like Jay-Z

who's kind of the mastermind kingpin.

His life bears that out.

He keeps making moves that make him more money.

There's a really long history of that

going back to the very beginning of hip-hop.

You see these people--like, Slick Rick has a full persona.

He's someone who influenced story-telling rap

more than anybody else.

A lot of rappers play with identity in that way.

You know, these people like André 3000,

this--this soulful poet

who refuses any artistic limits.

You have like a Young Thug,

whose sole mission seems to be to follow his own instincts

and, like, bend the rules of rap towards himself.

And all of these people,

through sheer force of personality

and artistic ability,

begin to shape what the world looks like for other people.

Hip-hop in general allows

for a lot of that kind of, you know, myth-making.

That kind of "I am who I say I am."

And that's the thing

that listeners are often attracted to

is someone, like, defining exactly who they are

on their own terms.

Yo, so you know what I just noticed, right?

My government name is Daniel Hernandez.

Like, that's my name. Daniel Hernandez.

And my rap name is 6ix9ine, right?

So follow me.

So Daniel has six letters

in the name,

and Hernandez have nine letters in the name.

So 6ix9ine, Daniel Hernandez.

intense music

Never seen anything like him

in terms of the supervillain thing.

I mean, it seems like he's really willingly embracing

being a piece of shit.

Man, fuck all your dead homies, nigga--I don't give a fuck

who I'm talking about, fuck all them niggas, nigga.

-Who you talking about? -Fuck you

-and your dead homies, nigga. -Who you talkin' about?

Fuck are you talkin' about? I'm gangsta like that.

Rainbow-head, dough-head bitch.

I mean, that's why he wanted to get down with the Bloods.

It's just because it sort of gave him the opportunity

to talk all the shit that he wanted.

Do not beef with me if you not ready to get disrespected

'cause I'm a disrespectful-ass kid.

YG, suck my fucking dick, stupid.

99.9 percent of y'all rappers is fucking bitch-ass niggas,

and y'all can all suck my fucking dick.

It's how the fuck we mob, man! Treyway shit, man!

Jack boy shit, man!

You're fucking Barclays, stupid!

[Ron] In 23 years of doing gang work,

there hasn't been really a happy ending with anybody.

The reality of what this is leading to

has been prison, has been death,

and has been people being maimed,

in wheelchairs and losing limbs.

-For real, nigga. Huh? -Yeah. Yeah.

It's a whole lot of gang shit.

[echoing] Gang shit...

[Ron] It's unwritten rule,

you know, you have to show your worthiness.

You have to be walked in, as they say.

To be a Nine Trey gangster,

you know, you have to have somebody vouch for you,

and if somebody's vouching for you,

then they're basically saying

that this individual is cut for our lifestyle.

[person] 6ix9ine with the homies.

Real gangster, you know what I'm saying?

[person] 6ix9ine is Blood.

[person] Who said he not good?

Who said they don't like him?

I had been with him for five months,

on the road, off the road,

sleeping in my crib, sleeping on the floor together,

sleeping...

eating Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother crib,

shit like that.

You do shit like that,

you know what I'm saying, you in.

You in.

Bad times, we stood up for Danny.

[person] Fuck these niggas!

[Seqo] In so many instances and situations.

uneasy music

-Pull up for him every time. -[gunshot]

I treat that nigga like one of my family.

Mind you, he had a whole...

he had a whole different...

he had a ulterior motive with that whole scheme.

He was doing it to...

to make the fucking empire crumble though.

[reporter] 18 alleged gang members and their friends

indicted on dozens of charges,

with crimes ranging from reckless endangerment

to conspiracy and murder.

Watch as this young man opens fire...

intense musical build-up

All I'm standing on is pull up

On my Jetta with the hood up, yo

Icy rocks, big bookers

Aunties wanna give me sugar, yo

Mink coat like a pusher

Sisters wanna have my babies

Baby mamas drive me crazy

They comparing me to Jay-Z

Cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking

From the kitchen to the bookies

From the bookers to the slammer

First day, I got a hammer, yo

Roll out that red, I'm like whoa

They be like, 'What's poppin'?

What's poppin', Fav?'

I'm banging, I sign on that dotted line

Won't snitch and won't switch for no dollar sign

Yo

Them niggas get in your head, Fa

No, don't you do that [echo] don't do that

You know what time it is

It's a fact [echo] it's a fact

They play tag and tap dance on lava

Billy yo

Yo

Think they hard 'cause they taggin'

Tie your moms up in plastic, yo

Kill your dog with the mattress

Leave a bomb by your address

Seqo Billy terminator, yo

I feed your baby to a gator, yo

You can dream about it later