Flamboyant rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was sentenced to two years in federal prison Wednesday for racketeering and other crimes he carried out as a member of a ruthless New York street gang that he joined to boost his public street persona.
Because he’s been locked up for nearly 13 months, he will have less than a year remaining to serve, meaning he’ll be free again in late 2020.
The judge in the case cited Tekashi's cooperation as justification for the lighter sentence.
The 23-year-old rapper, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, had faced 47 years behind bars but earned a substantial reprieve by fully cooperating in the case against him and his one-time cohorts.
Prior to his sentencing Wednesday, Tekashi 6ix9ine expressed regret for joining the gang, apologizing to his family, his fans and the victims in the case.
“I'm not a victim. I put myself in this position from Day 1,” Tekashi 6ix9ine said, breaking down shortly after when he spotted his biological father, whom he says he hasn't seen since the third grade, in the courtroom. He then read from a lengthy letter, saying, “I made a lot of bad choices in life, but that does not make me a bad person.”
Tekashi's testimony was mostly responsible for helping convict two top-ranking members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods for racketeering conspiracy, multiple robberies, assaults and other felonies, including the robbery and kidnapping of Hernandez himself.
Hernandez provided investigators “an insider’s view of Nine Trey and a firsthand account of many acts of violence” that led to multiple convictions, prosecutors said.
For their crimes, Anthony “Harv” Ellison and Aljermiah “Nuke” Mack are scheduled to be sentenced in February.
In September, the co-defendants went on trial in a Manhattan courtroom as Hernandez took the witness stand against them.
Hernandez had already pleaded guilty to nine federal charges ranging from racketeering, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit murder.
In exchange for his “extraordinary cooperation,” prosecutors asked federal Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in a Dec. 4 memo to impose a lighter sentence, saying Hernandez’s help was “both incredibly significant and extremely useful.”
Hernandez followed that up with a letter of his own.
Just last week he wrote to Judge Engelmayer, apologizing for his crimes and asking for leniency.
“I still consider myself a role model to millions of people as an artist, a celebrity and as a human being,” he wrote.
The letter is signed Daniel Hernandez.
The rapper's cooperation with federal authorities has him in hot water with hip-hop fans and artists alike.
Since his cooperation with the government became public in February, Hernandez has been the subject of daily negative press, diss tracks and relentless snitch memes that have swept the Internet, calling out the rapper for violating the "code of silence."
Last month, social media linked Tekashi’s name to the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
When Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, implicated Trump in his testimony to Congress, social media quickly jumped at the opportunity to call out the diplomat as the "Tekashi69" of the impeachment.
While the suggestion seems humorous, Hernandez's reputation in the hip-hop world is otherwise in tatters — his testimony having damaged the very credibility he sought by joining the gang.
In a mass critical response to Tekashi's testimony, social media has redubbed him “Tekashi Snitch9ine.”
»MORE: 25 of the funniest memes about 6ix9ine's testimony
Rappers 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg and Meek Mill, among others, chimed in about Tekashi on their social media pages. Snoop said his friend Martha Stewart — who served five months in federal prison beginning in 2004 — had more street credibility than the rapper.
— Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.
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