Immediately after his prison release, polarizing rapper 6ix9ine seemed to fully embrace the "snitch" title. He made light of the accusations on his Instagram account, where he jokingly questioned the basis of the criticism as well as changing his profile avatar to an illustration of himself eating cheese on a rat trap.
6ix9ine would later explain his decision for cooperating with federal investigators and ultimately testifying against his co-defendants in his racketeering case. The 24-year-old put it simply: He refused to show loyalty to anyone who wasn't loyal to him.
"Where was the loyalty when you was sleeping with my baby mother? Where was the loyalty when you was caught on the wire tap tryna kill me? Where was the loyalty when you tried to kidnap my mother? Where was the loyalty when you stole millions of dollars from me? Where was that? So who broke it first?" he said on Instagram Live. "I get it. Don’t fight fire with fire—I’m sorry. But what did I do wrong? ... Be loyal to n***as that kidnapped me, beat the shit out of me on video and everything? I’m supposed to be loyal to that? Nah, you know what it is? Y’all don’t wanna accept the fact that those is all true facts. Y’all understand why I snitched, y’all understand. Y’all don’t want to understand."
Unsurprisingly, his explanation was met with mixed reactions. Some agreed with his stance, while others maintain he was out of line for breaking street code. Chicago rapper Lil Bibby weighed in on the debate with several tweets on Wednesday, urging his followers to be cautious of anyone who agrees with 6ix9ine's argument.
You gotta watch the ppl that think 69 gotta point 👀
Many hip-hop figures—including Meek Mill, Snoop Dogg, and Boosie Badazz—have criticized 6ix9ine's decision to cooperate with the feds. Even 50 Cent, who previously referred to 6ix9ine as his "son," said he would never work with the Brooklyn rapper because of the snitching controversy; however, Fif said he's convinced 6ix9ine will still be a success.
"I wouldn’t work with him. What it is, is it’s just against the way I grew up," Fif told Big Boy last month. "... Without speaking in a negative way about [6ix9ine]—I think the new artists are gonna adjust to him. They gonna work with him. Watch, because he’ll have some success and then you’ll start to see people not care so much and it’ll be more important to them to have a hit than to stand with that."
