Tekashi 6ix9ine is persona non grata to many, but Akon reckons the rainbow-haired rapper has scored a rough deal.
When Tekashi 6ix9ine was arrested on racketeering charges in November 2018, he was given a choice between facing up to 47 years in jail, or turning state informant on his Nine Trey Gangster Bloods members and receiving a much-reduced sentence. The “Trollz” rapper’s decision to co-operate with authorities may have afforded him less jail time, but it also greatly diminished his image in the hip hop community where he has since come to be thought of as a snitch.
Meek Mill has been resolute in his condemns of Tekashi, referring to him as a rat and even getting into spats with the felon’s bestie, DJ Akademiks, but Akon is someone who continues to stick by 6ix9ine’s side.
When the New Yorker was moved from the Queens Detention Centre to house arrest due to COVID-19, he collaborated on a remix of Akon’s 2004 hit, “Locked Up”. The new version details 6ix9ine’s time behind bars, with the “Lonely” rapper saying it gives his fellow artist an opportunity to tell his story. “I feel like, at the end of the day, his side wasn’t really told and it still ain’t really told,” Akon said in an interview with DJ Whoo Kid. “Everybody got a story and I don’t think that we should be in a position to judge who should tell it.”
Since switching to home confinement, Tekashi appears to be trying to put his prison life aside by releasing two new singles and earning his first Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper. He is now set to be a free man as his three-month house arrest is scheduled to conclude this week.
