The rise of controversial rapper 6ix9ine has been unorthodox, to say the least. A new Rolling Stone feature by Stephen Witt details the intricacies of how he reached the level of infamy he did and how these same moves ultimately led to his fall, offering the most detailed profile of the rainbow-haired rapper to date. Speaking with a slew of collaborators and business partners as well as 6ix9ine himself, the piece reveals that the CEO of the artist's label, 10K Projects, tried to get the rapper out of New York City before it was too late.
Following a kidnapping 69 insisted was an inside job, the man born Daniel Hernandez (and referred to copiously here as "Danny") saw his safety became an issue. “I don’t think he can be safe in New York City,” 10K Projects CEO Elliott Grainge explained. “Not in Bushwick.” Grainge attempted to convince him to move to Calabasas, Los Angeles, so that he could live near Drake and Kanye West. 6ix9ine wasn't a fan of the idea, despite later working with Yeezy on numerous occassions.
Grainge also dubs 6ix9ine "the Donald Trump of the music industry" and says that online, "80 percent of the comments are hate. But if we showed you the analytics on who writes the hate comments, they’re the ones who go to the shows and buy the T-shirts!”
Earlier in the extensive article, it's made evident that 6ix9ine didn't care about becoming a rapper until he wanted to find a quick way to help support his then unborn child. With no high-school education and a minium-wage job at the time, he decided to utilize his social media expertise to become a rapper.
The RS story features multiple interviews with Andrew "TrifeDrew" Green, who co-wrote a number of 6ix9ine's songs, including "Gummo." As his breakout hit, the track reportedly took a long time to come together. "We worked on ‘Gummo’ for almost four months,” Green added. “We tried a bunch of different flows, a bunch of cadences. The label didn’t believe in it, but we just knew when we heard it."
Odd considering 6ix9ine cockily told Angie Martinez he put “no effort” into “FEFE” and positioned it as his default mode, saying he was sure Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole are in awe of his ease.
Grainge told RS the “FEFE” thing was true. “He’s been to the recording studio maybe 15 times, never for more than an hour or so. And he’s got 15 hits!”
Read the whole fascinating feature here.
