Tekashi 69, the Rat: Testimony, Cooperation Deal, and Fallout

Tekashi 6ix9ine is called a rat because in September 2019 he took the witness stand in a Manhattan federal courtroom and testified in extensive detail against members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, the street gang he had joined two years earlier. His cooperation, which prosecutors called “substantial assistance,” helped convict two co-defendants at trial and pushed others into guilty pleas. In exchange, Daniel Hernandez received a 24-month sentence instead of the 37 to 47 years he was otherwise facing.1Rolling Stone. Tekashi 6ix9ine Two Years Prison Sentence

What He Testified To

Hernandez spent multiple days on the stand as the government’s star witness in the trial of Anthony “Harv” Ellison and Aljermiah “Nuke” Mack. His testimony worked through Nine Trey’s inner workings, its hierarchy, and the specific crimes he had participated in or ordered.

He described paying an associate, Kintea “Kooda B” McKenzie, $10,000 of a promised $20,000 to shoot at rival rapper Chief Keef near a Times Square hotel. He testified about coordinating a November 2017 attack on rapper Trippie Redd because Trippie Redd was aligned with a rival Blood set. He confirmed that his former manager, Kifano “Shotti” Jordan, ordered a shot fired during a confrontation with affiliates of rapper Casanova at the Barclays Center. And he walked jurors through an armed robbery carried out as retaliation for a dispute at South by Southwest.2Pitchfork. Tekashi 6ix9ine Testifies at Trial About Alleged Kidnapping

The moments that traveled furthest online were his identifications of other public figures. Hernandez testified that rapper Jim Jones was a Nine Trey member, calling him a “retired rapper,” and prosecutors played a wiretapped call in which Jim Jones told Nine Trey leader Jamel “Mel Murda” Jones that “they going to have to violate shorty because shorty is on some bullshit.” He also testified that Cardi B had been a Nine Trey member. A representative for Cardi B denied it, saying she “is not and has never been affiliated with this gang.”3Pitchfork. Tekashi 6ix9ine Testifies That Cardi B and Jim Jones Are Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods4Page Six. Tekashi 6ix9ine Testifies Cardi B Is Member of Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods Gang Neither Jim Jones nor Cardi B faced any reported legal consequences from the testimony.

Why He Flipped

On November 18 and 19, 2018, federal agents arrested Hernandez and five associates. A superseding indictment in the Southern District of New York charged the group with racketeering conspiracy, violent crimes in aid of racketeering, and firearms offenses tied to a gunpoint robbery in April 2018, a shooting near the Barclays Center that same month, and a July 2018 shooting that wounded an innocent bystander.5U.S. Department of Justice. Recording Artist and Performer Tekashi 6ix 9ine and Five Other Members and Associates Charged Hernandez was facing a potential life sentence and was denied bail.6CBS News. Tekashi 6ix9ine Charged With Racketeering

Something else pushed him toward the government. Months before his arrest, on July 22, 2018, Anthony “Harv” Ellison and an associate tailed Hernandez’s car, crashed into it, forced him inside their vehicle at gunpoint, beat him, and made him renounce his affiliation with Nine Trey three times before releasing him at his home with his jewelry taken. Prosecutors later played dashcam footage of the abduction at trial.2Pitchfork. Tekashi 6ix9ine Testifies at Trial About Alleged Kidnapping Being kidnapped by the same gang he had joined for protection reportedly contributed to his willingness to become a government witness.7The New York Times. Tekashi 69 Trial Gang Violence

In early 2019, Hernandez pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, firearms offenses, and drug trafficking. He admitted being a Nine Trey member, helping other members carry out armed robberies, and attempting to kill a rival gang member to raise his standing in the organization.8The New York Times. Tekashi 69 Pleads Guilty

What Cooperation Bought Him

On December 18, 2019, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer sentenced Hernandez to 24 months in prison, with credit for 13 months already served, followed by five years of supervised release. He was fined $35,000 and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service.9Pitchfork. Tekashi 6ix9ine Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison

Judge Engelmayer described the cooperation as “game-changing,” “complete,” and “brave,” saying it gave the government critical insight and helped secure convictions for all defendants.10Complex. Tekashi 6ix9ine Sentencing Hearing He also rejected the defense’s argument that Hernandez had been exploited by the gang, calling his decision to join Nine Trey “completely and utterly unnecessary” and saying he had used the gang as his “personal hit squad.” Time served alone, the judge said, would not adequately address conduct that was “deadly serious.”1Rolling Stone. Tekashi 6ix9ine Two Years Prison Sentence

In April 2020, with roughly four months left, Hernandez was granted compassionate release because of the COVID-19 pandemic. His attorneys argued his asthma made him particularly vulnerable, and Judge Engelmayer ordered the remainder served under home confinement with GPS monitoring, with no movement outside his approved residence except for medical or legal appointments cleared by his probation officer.11Vulture. Tekashi69 Released From Prison Explainer12The New York Times. Tekashi69 Free Prison Coronavirus

What It Cost the Co-Defendants

Hernandez’s cooperation drove the outcomes across the case:

The Reaction From Hip-Hop

The response from rap was swift and unforgiving. Future wrote that snitching made someone no different from “that kid Tekashi.” Meek Mill told followers the lesson was to not be “a internet gangsta.” Maxo Kream acknowledged the tension, writing that it’s “not cool to be a gangsta” but also “not cool to snitch.” Royce da 5’9″ wrote that “Tekashi better at telling than he is rapping.” YBN Almighty Jay joked that Hernandez had told his mother he stole money from her purse as a child. 2 Chainz posted a video from New York pointing at a giant inflatable rat on a truck.19XXL Magazine. 50 Cent, Meek Mill, More React to 6ix9ine Testifying20NME. 2 Chainz Has a Dig at Tekashi 6ix9ine

Jim Jones, whom Hernandez had named on the stand, told a radio show that Hernandez had done “some actions that he can’t come back from, so his name non-mentionable.”21Pitchfork. Tekashi 6ix9ine Testifies That Cardi B and Jim Jines Are Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods

Turning Down Witness Protection

Federal prosecutors indicated witness protection was on the table given death threats from Nine Trey members. Hernandez reportedly rejected it. Joining the U.S. Marshals’ Witness Security Program would have meant a new identity, cutting off contact with family and friends, and likely removing his distinctive face tattoos. A former FBI official noted that without those tattoos and in ordinary clothing, “no one would know or care who he is.”22Business Insider. Tekashi 69 Witness Protection US Marshals Service

He chose private security instead. He later told a court he had been beaten at a Florida gym in 2023, that his mother was held at gunpoint in 2020, and that someone left a coffin containing a dead animal at his home.23New York Post. Tekashi 6ix9ine Learns Fate After Violating Probation Again

How Cooperation Works in Federal Court

The mechanics of the deal are worth understanding, because they explain how a defendant facing decades came out with two years. Under federal sentencing rules, a defendant who provides “substantial assistance” in investigating or prosecuting other people can receive a sentence below the applicable mandatory minimum, but only if the government files a motion confirming that cooperation. As of 2017, prosecutors sought such reductions for roughly 11 percent of all federal defendants sentenced that year, with wide variation by district.24Duke University Judicature. Cooperation and Sentencing

The median reduction runs about 50 percent below the guidelines minimum. Courts and defense attorneys routinely try to seal cooperation agreements because retaliation against known cooperators is a documented risk. Hernandez’s case ran opposite to that norm. His testimony was broadcast, quoted, and turned into memes in real time, making him an extreme example of a cooperator whose role could not be hidden.

Life After the Testimony

Commercially, Hernandez tested the “rat” label almost immediately. In May 2020 he released “Gooba,” which debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. The following month, “Trollz,” a collaboration with Nicki Minaj, debuted at number one on 116,000 first-week sales and 36 million U.S. streams.25Billboard. 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj Trollz Number One Hot 100 It fell to number 34 in its second week, the largest drop for a number-one debut in Hot 100 history at the time, with critics pointing to inflated first-week numbers driven by merchandise bundles and 69-cent iTunes pricing.26Forbes. 6ix9ine Nicki Minaj Trollz Hot 100 Fall His September 2020 album “TattleTales” was widely considered a commercial failure, and his subsequent singles charted progressively lower.27Stereogum. The Number Ones: 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj’s Trollz

The legal problems have not stopped. In October 2023, he was arrested in the Dominican Republic for allegedly assaulting a local music producer at a hotel.28The Guardian. Tekashi 6ix9ine Arrest Dominican Republic Domestic Violence In January 2024, he was arrested again in Santo Domingo on domestic violence charges; a Dominican judge ordered his conditional release on a $510 deposit with counseling requirements.29Courthouse News Service. Dominican Judge Orders Conditional Release of US Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine

On October 29, 2024, he was arrested in the United States for violating his federal supervised release. The violations included unauthorized travel to Las Vegas, lying to his probation officer about the trip, missing a drug test, and testing positive for methamphetamines, which he attributed to Adderall.30ABC7 New York. Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine Arrested for Alleged Violation of Supervised Release On November 12, 2024, Judge Engelmayer sentenced him to 45 days, telling him his conduct suggested he thought the rules did not apply to him, “maybe because you’re a famous and wealthy rapper,” while calling the violations not “gravely serious.” The judge factored in two weeks already spent in solitary confinement, which he called “particularly harsh.”31Courthouse News Service. Apologetic Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine Gets 45 Days in Prison for Probation Violations

On December 5, 2025, Judge Engelmayer sentenced him to three months for further supervised release violations, including an August 2025 assault at a Florida mall, where he punched a man who had taunted him about snitching, and possession of MDMA and cocaine found at his Florida home. The judge rejected house arrest as a “slap on the wrist,” said Hernandez “keeps blowing it” and showed “extreme abuse of the court’s trust,” and credited his progress in court-ordered therapy for keeping the sentence from running longer.23New York Post. Tekashi 6ix9ine Learns Fate After Violating Probation Again On January 6, 2026, Hernandez turned himself in at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to begin the 90-day sentence, after which he faces an additional 12 months of probation.32ABC7. Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine Turns Himself in to Brooklyn Jail for 3-Month Sentence