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Tekashi 6ix9ine ’s legal battles are far from over. The Brooklyn rapper, born Daniel Hernandez, was back in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Thursday (Sept. 25), where he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a shopping mall assault last month in Florida, according to The New York Times.
A day later (Sept. 26), the judge ordered 6ix9ine to serve home confinement while he awaits sentencing, along with an electronic ankle monitor to track his movements until his November 4 court date.
A man spotted the rapper and taunted him about his past as a government witness.
This resulted in 6ix9ine and an associate knocking the victim to the ground and following up with kicks and punches. Tekashi and his associate fled the scene after realizing the man had a gun.
“I think the judge made the right call just for the fact that he’s pending sentence, it would have been too drastic of a remedy to put him in jail,” Hernandez’s attorney, Lance Lazzaro, said in a statement. “He went to a mall with his family, and a person who had a gun threatened him and called him a snitch and started a whole situation. He has to live every day with people doing stupid things to him and provoking him, which clearly was the case here.”
The guilty plea marks the third time 6ix9ine has violated the terms of his supervised release. His supervised release stems from the 2019 racketeering case that nearly ended his career and tied him to the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods gang. Tekashi famously turned state’s witness in that case, testifying against his co-defendants, and has worn the “snitch” label ever since.
Judge Paul Engelmayer has had to discipline him before. In November 2024, the rapper was sentenced to 45 days in jail and an extra year of supervised release after failing multiple drug tests and ignoring travel restrictions. That punishment came just as 6ix9ine was nearing the end of his original supervised release from his 2020 prison release.
Even as his legal situation grows more complicated, 6ix9ine has doubled down on his reputation as one of rap’s most polarizing figures. In a recent One Night With Steiny interview, he accused Offset of betraying his former Migos bandmates, fueling rumors that have long swirled around the group’s fallout.
“All these rappers is rats,” Tekashi said. “I’m not saying these [are] facts, but this is the rumor. Quavo’s girl was Saweetie, right? They said Offset slept with Saweetie, that’s why the Migos fell out. The game is full of rats.”
His sights have also shifted to Young Thug. In a snippet posted earlier this month, 6ix9ine took a direct shot: “Seen a snake turn spider turn rat, don’t tell the world, just please let me out, man.” The jab comes in the wake of leaked interrogation audio from Thug’s YSL case, which has divided rap fans over the idea of “snitching” and selective outrage within hip-hop.
For Tekashi, the contradictions aren’t lost. “They clowned me for cooperating in the Treyway case, but they’re moving the goalpost now,” he’s argued, painting himself as both victim and truth-teller in an industry that often shuns him.
With sentencing looming in November, 6ix9ine faces yet another turning point in a career that’s been defined as much by courtroom drama as it has by music. Whether he can navigate both worlds—or if his provocations will continue to backfire—remains to be seen.
