Tekashi 6ix9ine, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, took the stand again on Wednesday to describe for a Manhattan jury details from his life of crime with a violent street gang, including getting abducted at gunpoint.
On trial are Aljermiah Mack and Anthony (Harv) Ellison, described by prosecutors as two high-ranking members of a gang that terrorized city streets with drug-dealing and gunfire. Prosecutors allege that after a falling out with 6ix9ine, Ellison took revenge by abducting and robbing the rapper.
Testifying as a prosecution witness at the federal trial of two alleged members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, the Gummo rapper said that defendant Ellison and another armed man grabbed him out of his car and forced him into a stolen vehicle last July amid a dispute between warring factions of the crew.
READ MORE: 6ix9ine testifies in court for prosecution at Nine Trey trial
Jurors saw a video shot from the rapper’s car showing how his driver gave chase before the gunmen scared him off.
Prosecutors say Ellison, a gang enforcer, was angry at 6ix9ine — also an admitted Nine Trey member — for aligning himself with one of his rivals.
“I’m pleading with Harv the whole time, ‘Yo, I’m scared,'” 6ix9ine told the court. “I’m telling him, ‘Don’t shoot. I gave you everything. I put money in your pocket.’ I told him that I was tired of being extorted.”
He told them he would give them $100,000 to let him go.
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The men took the rapper to his Brooklyn home, where they stole a bag full of jewelry before driving him a few blocks away and releasing him, according to 6ix9ine.
The Fefe rapper said Wednesday that his former manager Kifano (Shotti) Jordan and others planned retaliation.
Earlier, 6ix9ine testified about the mayhem around various beefs with other hip-hop artists. Prosecutors say one of the disputes resulted in a gunshot being fired backstage at the Barclays Center arena and in a robbery in Times Square that was filmed by the rapper.
6ix9ine also told the court that he and other alleged Nine Trey members attacked Trippie Redd because Trippie Redd “was with another set of Bloods.”
He described how he and the alleged Nine Trey members followed Trippie Redd to his hotel following a music video shoot in Brooklyn and claimed that Ellison punched Trippie Redd in the mouth.
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While sharing details of the Barclays Center arena incident, 6ix9ine said he and his crew were involved in an altercation with rapper Casanova.
According to Wednesday’s testimony, 6ix9ine and “six or seven” members of his entourage were in the lower level tunnels at the Barclays Center in April 2018 when they were confronted by “over 25” affiliates of Casanova who began shoving them.
6ix9ine told the court that his former manager Jordan instructed another member of their crew to fire a shot to scatter the crowd.
The rapper also confirmed that he ordered a 2018 shooting in Time Square that targeted rapper Chief Keef.
He stated that he told Kintea McKenzie (a.k.a Kooda) he would pay $20,000 for the shooting but only gave him $10,000 after an intervention by Jordan.
Jordan was sentenced to 15 years in prison earlier this month after pleading guilty to one count of firearm possession during a crime and one count of firearm discharge during a crime.
McKenzie pleaded guilty in connection to the 2018 Times Square shooting in June.
Ellison denied the charges, with Ellison’s lawyer arguing the alleged kidnapping was a “publicity stunt.”
READ MORE: Tekashi 6ix9ine pleads guilty to 9 criminal counts, is cooperating with police
Ellison’s lawyer also compared the kidnapping to the Jussie Smollett incident that happened in January in which the actor claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack. (Smollett still claims he did not stage the attack as the Chicago Police Department alleges.)
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“This whole thing about a kidnapping is a hoax,” lawyer Deveraux Cannick said. “It’s a Jussie Smollett, if you will.”
On Tuesday, 6ix9ine testified against two alleged members of the Brooklyn street gang Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods in Manhattan’s Thurgood Marshall Courthouse.
In court, 6ix9ine described how he discovered a formula for success with the crew before betraying it by becoming a prosecution witness.
The rapper told the court that his role in the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods was to “just keep making hits and be the financial support for the gang … so they could buy guns and stuff like that.”
The 23-year-old testified that in return, he received “my career. I got the street credibility. The videos, the music, the protection — all of the above.”
During the testimony, 6ix9ine told the jury he decided to co-operate only a day after his arrest last year on a racketeering indictment that named him as a member of the gang — a move that has reportedly put him at risk behind bars and prompted many people in the rap community, including Snoop Dogg, to label him a “snitch” and a “rat.”
READ MORE: Tekashi 6ix9ine pleads not guilty to racketeering, firearms charges
6ix9ine testified on Tuesday that he was a high-school dropout and deli worker when he launched his rap career.
He said he began inviting gang members to be extras in his music videos, including Gummo and other songs, because he “wanted the aesthetic to be full of Nine Trey.”
Prosecutors showed the jury portions of the music videos so that 6ix9ine could identify various gang members.
Some of the Nine Trey members seen on tape were flashing guns and hand signs. 6ix9ine explained in court the lyrics to songs he said were often meant to taunt “somebody I didn’t get along with.”
6ix9ine told court Gummo was aimed at Trippie Redd, who the rapper identified as a member of the Five Nine Brims set of the Bloods.
“Me and Trippie Redd were signed to the same label,” 6ix9ine told court. “There was a lot of jealousy involved.”
(Warning: This video contains explicit language.)
When the music video blew up on the internet, “I knew I had a formula,” he testified.
In court, it was pointed out that 6ix9ine often shouts the slogan “Treyway” in his music.
“Treyway was more of a sophisticated way to name the gang — something that we could market,” 6ix9ine said.
READ MORE: Tekashi 6ix9ine transferred from federal jail to new facility for ‘security reasons’
In January 2019, 6ix9ine began co-operating with federal prosecutors after pleading guilty to nine crimes and saying he had joined a violent New York City gang and helped others try to kill a rival gang member.
6ix9ine had publicly identified himself as a member of a street gang in his music, but he’s also admitted it in a courtroom.
During the plea, 6ix9ine said he joined the Nine Trey Blood Gang in the fall of 2017 and helped gang members try to kill a rival last March.
“I did this to maintain or increase my own standing in Nine Trey,” he told Judge Paul A. Engelmayer. He said he also “knew that another member of Nine Trey had a gun and discharged that gun.”
The Stoopid rapper said he also helped other gang members rob people at gunpoint as part of a pledge by new gang members to commit at least two crimes.
With his deal with prosecutors, 6ix9ine can gain leniency at sentencing on an otherwise mandatory minimum of 47 years in prison if he admits to all crimes and testifies truthfully. The rapper’s sentencing is set for Jan. 23, 2020.
6ix9ine is set to return to the witness stand on Sept. 19.
—With files from the Associated Press
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