The troubles of Tekashi69: How rapper fell from stardom to end up lying bloody on a bathroom floor
Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised.
TAMPA, FLORIDA: Rainbow-haired rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine aka Tekashi69, whose birth name is Daniel Hernandez, was hospitalized on Tuesday, March 21, after being brutally beaten by a group of men inside the bathroom of LA Fitness. A video posted to Twitter showed two men towering over the 26-year-old rapper as he lay on the bathroom floor, protecting his head from the kicks while one of the men was heard yelling “shut the f**k up.”
Tekashi69's face was left with cuts and bruises after the physical altercation, according to New York Post. Another video showed the rapper with a bloodied face angrily confronting the person filming him. A source close to the rapper said that he also suffered injuries to his jaw, ribs, and back during the assault. The rapper's attorney, Lance Lazzaro, said he will contact federal authorities to arrange for increased protection following the assault, reported DailyMail.
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#Tekashi #6ix9ine got hands and feet put on him in Florida #damn pic.twitter.com/rwu0EdnIdN
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) March 22, 2023
THE RAPPER THAT GOES BY 69 #6ix9ine Was reportedly jumped at La Fitness while working out 😬… pic.twitter.com/cCxOsuMmkL
— MemeEdits (@Quan_follwers) March 22, 2023
Tekashi69's legal troubles
It is still unclear if the assault at LA Fitness had anything to do with Tekashi69's prior behavior or legal troubles. In 2019, he was found guilty of multiple crimes related to the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, a subset of the violent prison gang founded at New York’s Rikers Island in 1993. He was sentenced to two years but was released after 13 months on good behavior. He told The New York Times, as per Business Insider, that if he returns to his old neighborhood in Brooklyn, he would be killed.
Prior to this, in 2015, he used a 13-year-old child in a sexual performance, reports PitchFork. The rapper was 18 then. The girl later filed a lawsuit alleging he “touched and groped [her] buttocks in a sexually explicit and demeaning manner," Page Six reports. He was found guilty and was sentenced to 300 hours of community service, abstaining from posting certain social media content, mental health counseling, getting his GED, and apologizing to the girl's family in a letter, states Billboard. In 2018, he was also charged with assault for an argument that turned into a physical fight with a teenager at the Galleria Mall in Houston. The rapper was upset that the teen was videotaping him while he was shopping. He choked the teen and threatened him to delete the videos, reports Billboard.
The rise and fall of Tekashi69
Born on May 8, 1996, Tekashi69's biological father abandoned him, and his mother, who was born in Mexico, told him that his adoptive Puerto Rican father was actually his biological dad. However, he still continued to be close to his stepfather and referred to him as his “real” father, reports Rolling Stone. In 2010, when Tekashi69 was 13, his adoptive father was shot and killed outside their apartment. The culprit was never caught.
The family struggled financially. Along with his older brother, Tekashi worked odd jobs in Bushwick. He began his career as a rapper in 2014 to support his child when his girlfriend got pregnant. In 2017, he captured America’s attention after releasing his debut single, 'Gummo'. He quickly established himself in the hip-hop industry, but it was his introduction to Kifano Jordan aka Shotti, an alleged Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods member who also became his unofficial manager, that brought his gang life into focus. Tekashi69's contentious behavior has attracted over 21.8 million followers on Instagram.
In September 2019, Shotti was sentenced to 15 years in prison after previously pleading guilty to one count of firearm possession during a crime and one count of firearm discharge during a crime. The charges came from two separate incidents in April 2018, all of which also involved 6ix9ine, reports Pitchfork.