Snitching or snitching is a mortal sin within the rap world. It often means end of career for artists who talk to the police. But for rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine it seems to be the other way around. It has never been more popular than it is now.
When it became known that 6ix9ine was going to testify in a gang violence case, he became the joke of the rap scene. Memes in which the rapper was ridiculed went viral and sketches were also made about him.
The New York rapper provided information about gang members who featured in his clips a few years earlier. In exchange for the confessions, he was sentenced to two years in prison last December instead of the 27 years that hung over his head.
Last month, a judge decided that Daniel Hernandez, as the rapper is really called, was allowed to leave prison early because of the corona outbreak. Hernandez suffers from asthma and therefore belongs to the risk group. The judge allowed him to serve the rest of his sentence at home.
Soon after his release, it was rumored that 6ix9ine would make a comeback soon. Connoisseurs did not expect much of it and assumed that his career was finished.
But online, the hype grew as the song and clip came online. And that turned out not to be an exaggeration, because an hour after Gooba came on Youtube, the counter was already over 3 million views. The clip thus seems to set a record.
What has certainly broken a record is his livestream on Instagram. With 2 million viewers, it is the most watched live video on the platform.
In the fifteen minute stream, Tekashi reacted to statements he made for the first time since his release. According to him, the people he testified against were not loyal to him either. “Where was the loyalty when you threatened me with death, where was the loyalty when you tried to kidnap my mother and when you stole millions from me. So who is wrong?”
He also lashed out at people who criticize him. “I’m the biggest rapper in the world right now. Figures don’t lie,” he said of the record viewership. “I get millions of views in an hour, you can’t even get 100,000 views.”