Rapper ‘too violent’ to walk free: judge
The best performance of Tekashi69’s life got him two years in prison.
The entertainer from Brooklyn scored the relatively lenient sentence Wednesday thanks to his cooperation with the feds against the gang that made him famous. Tekashi’s betrayal of the Nine Trey Bloods made the trash-talking “GUMMO” rapper a hip-hop meme. The 13 months he’s already spent behind bars will count toward the sentence, meaning that with credit for good behavior he could be out of prison in seven months.
Tekashi, 23, appeared disappointed when Judge Paul Engelmayer imposed the sentence.
“Your conduct was too violent, too sustained, too destructive, too selfish and too reckless with respect to public safety to make a sentence of 13 months at all reasonable,” Engelmayer said.
Tekashi’s attorney Lance Lazzaro confirmed they’d expected a sentence of time served. During remarks before the packed courtroom before learning his fate, Tekashi — for once — was at a loss for words.
“Your Honor, my life is so crazy I don’t know where to start,” he said, choking up and shedding a few tears.
He apologized, accepted responsibility for his role in the mayhem and said he’d set a bad example for his millions of fans.
“I can’t blame no one but myself. I’m not a victim. I put myself in this position from day one,” he said, acknowledging that he’d readily embraced the gang lifestyle.
“I was weak. I was easily influenced. I can’t believe that was me.”
In the end, it was Tekashi’s gleeful leading role in gang violence — including shootings at Times Square and the Barclays Center — that convinced Engelmayer that the rapper couldn’t walk out of the courtroom a free man. The judge listed seven separate incidents in late 2017 and 2018 that all could have easily escalated into major crimes that could have killed bystanders.
“You were the impetus and often instigator for all that violence,” Engelmayer said.
The entertainer, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, used Nine Trey as his “personal hit squad,” the judge said. Plenty of musicians sing about crime, Engelmayer noted, citing Bruce Springsteen’s “Murder Incorporated.”
“You, Mr. Hernandez, essentially joined Murder Incorporated,” Englemayer said.
Still, the judge credited Tekashi’s decision to flip.
“Your cooperation was impressive. It was game-changing. It was complete and it was brave,” Engelmayer said.
The sentence could have been much harsher.
Tekashi pleaded guilty to nine gang, gun and drug charges carrying a minimum of 37 years in prison. His decision to turn state’s evidence allowed Engelmayer to depart from that mandatory minimum. Tekashi has been in protective custody away from other gang members since November 2018.
Tekashi was also sentenced to five years of supervised release after he serves his time and must pay a $35,000 fine.
A two-week trial of Nine
Trey gangsters Anthony “Harv” Ellison and Aljermiah “Nuke” Mack revealed that in 2017 and 2018 Tekashi and the gang developed a mutually beneficial arrangement. Tekashi gained street cred thanks to his gang membership. The Bushwick rapper’s fame, meanwhile, raised the gang’s profile and provided an additional stream of revenue through his wildly successful music career. He had a multiplatinum hit song, “Fefe,” with Nicki Minaj and boasts 14 million followers on Instagram.
But Engelmayer noted that Nine Trey was not settling scores with rappers until Tekashi came onboard.
“I reject the portrait of you as a passive participant,” the judge said. “It’s simply not accurate to portray you as a naive young man.”