Tekashi 6ix9ine Faces Life In Prison For Armed Robbery & Racketeering

November 19, 2018

In his latest in a long string of run-ins with the law, rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine—along with three associates—was arrested Sunday night by federal agents on a number of racketeering, weapons, and drug charges. If convicted, 6ix9ine could face life in prison.

The arrest comes a month after the rapper—real name Daniel Hernandez—avoided jail time and having to register as a sex offender by pleading guilty in a 2015 sexual misconduct case involving an underage girl; he was instead sentenced to four years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service. Among Tekashi's other past offenses: choking a 16-year-old girl, assaulting a police officer, and violating multiple parts of his probation agreements in the time since. Multiple people in his camp, as well as the street gang he's involved with, have been arrested in connections with a number of shootings. The latest indictment of Hernandez and four of his associates details the counts of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit murder, and racketeering that led to their arrest last night; the indictment also charges that members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods were involved in distributing heroin, fentanyl, MDMA, and marijuana.

So what does this all mean for the 22-year-old's budding rap career? Well, for one, the release of his debut album Dummy Boy this Friday could now potentially be up in the air. Mere hours before his arrest on Sunday, Tekashi announced the release date and tracklist for the album, which features entries from rap legends like Nicki Minaj and Kanye West. The album comes less than a year after the release of his debut mixtape Day69, which effectively marked 6ix9ine's jump from Soundcloud to sellable rap, earning gold certification by the RIAA almost immediately.

If convicted of all the charges brought forth by federal authorities, 6ix9ine faces a minimum of 32 years in prison, with the potential of a life sentence. As of this writing, Dummy Boy is still set for release this Friday, and could be headed towards commercial success despite his personal strife thanks to his legion of young supporting fans.