69: The Saga of Daniel Hernandez

11.17.20

69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez Released 11.16.20

Just yesterday, DJ Akademiks shared the trailer of a Hulu documentary on his IGTV. The documentary was around his good friend, Daniel Hernandez, aka Tekashi 6ix9ine. Word of the film spread like wildfire, as it has been some time since we have last heard from 6ix9ine. Hulu posted, confirming its existence, and the film is actually available for streaming right now. However, 6ix9ine’s manager, Murda Murphy, says that this film was not authorized by anyone on 6ix9ine’s team, and urges fans not to pay attention to the film.

There is no denying that Tekashi 6ix9ine has had quite the whirl wind, rollercoaster of a career. He blew up after his first single, but also caused a lot of controversy. After escaping the law time after time, he began to think of himself as invincible, and took on the persona of the ultimate class clown. He was kidnapped and beat up several times, where we began to fear for his life, that is, until he got booked on his most severe charges yet. After being arrested for racketeering and essentially charged with life in prison, we all know that Tekashi 6ix9ine cooperated with the police, and has since been released from prison, serving just under two years of his life sentence. This changed his reputation yet again, to the rat of the hip-hop industry.

The first single since his release did do numbers, likely due to people wanting to hear what he had to say after being locked up. Would it be any different? Will he apologize? What could he possibly have to tell us? Who is still going to do features with this guy? Well, not much has changed and after attempting to put out an album a few weeks later, the numbers completely flopped and we have heard very little from the rapper since.

If you really think about the idea of Tekashi 6ix9ine having his own documentary series, you might be intrigued. How much was Tekashi really in the streets? What was he doing to have received so much credibility, and where exactly did it go all down hill? You may very well dislike this man, but perhaps are curious of what the real story is, for your own personal knowledge and being able to further justify your opinions. Or, perhaps you are a fan of the music and have decided to put other people’s opinions behind you, and just want to hear from your favorite artist. I align with the first thought here, I think it would be interesting to see.

However, who is going to give this man the limelight, after just being released from prison? I was expecting this to come out years down the road, but, is this really happening, right now? According to 6ix9ine’s manager, he says that this documentary is essentially fake news. Murda Murphy shares an Instagram Story twice stating:

The Hulu & showtime @6ix9ine projects!! Are both unauthorized!! Nothing to do with us!! Zero!! The people in these talking are cap! Are not involved with us in anyway!! Don’t support this trash!! When @6ix9ine does something you’ll be the first to know!

I definitely think that he has a point, where if 6ix9ine was going to be in a film, he would be posting about it, bragging about it, and in anyway possible, trying to run up his money. However, he has not posted anything on socials. His bio still quotes Tattle Tales from the September drop date. While it is interesting that Akademiks has shared the trailer, and then his manager claims it is trash, is interesting. However, Akademiks could have just seen this and thought he was supporting his friends. It is unlikely they speak daily, and I am sure we will have a follow up from him soon.

So, how did they create this film without authorization from Tekashi 6ix9ine? Who are the people in the film talking that Murphy referenced are all cap? According to the director of the film, he interviews a bunch of people who were from Brooklyn, that allegedly knew 6ix9ine prior to his big blow up. From the trailer, it does just look like interviews from random people, and a bunch of clips that could have been taken from anywhere on the internet. If these are people that were from 6ix9ine’s old neighborhood, they can very well have an opinion on who he was back then, and how they view him now, but it would be hard to take anything as credible, because these people clearly are not his friends today.

What is most interesting about this to me is, how often does this happen? It feels like this time last year, that the documentary film of Aaron Hernandez released, and I struggled to believe the interviews. Everyone had something super far-fetched to say, and a lot of the content did not really seem factual, just assumptions. With this film, he is not here to defend himself. About three years to this month, we lost Lil Peep. Lil Peep also had a documentary film released in his name, where the kids being interviewed were just horrible. It seemed like they were all strung out on drugs and alcohol, and one of them literally had a panic attack on film, suggesting we would flip his interview to seem like he had a part in Lil Peep loosing his life. There was also another interviewee who said not to trust the other people that were being interviewed, they were not real friends. The whole thing was very weird, and made me believe that there was more to the story than what we were told.

So, I would have to say that this film probably is not one hundred percent factual, and if you do watch, you should take everything with a grain of salt and keep this in mind. Knowing that 6ix9ine is still very much here to defend himself, it will be interesting to see if he responds to the film. I do not have Hulu so I will need to find a way to watch it for my own opinion, but judging by Murda Murphy’s response, it just seems like they will picture 6ix9ine in a negative light in some ways throughout the film. Hulu’s tweet about the film already seems a bit condescending.