Trippie Redd and Tekashi 6ix9ine are two confusing rap artists that are highly representative of the era which birthed them. Both MCs hark back to a day that has effectively died, the days of SoundCloud rap. SoundCloud rap emerged and perished in the mid-2010s.
Before the platform began its quest for monetisation by destroying its communities, the streaming service was a fantastic place for underground acts to post their music, and several artists can be traced back to the website.
Lil Yachty, Juice Wrld, Post Malone, and many others are just examples. The era before SoundCloud rappers in the mid-2000s began their careers on MySpace or DatPiff. Now, MCs are achieving fame on TikTok. Trippie Redd and 6ix9ine were both artists on 10k Projects, a UMG-funded label that used to boast quite the roster. The pair clicked as two figures of the same age making similar music. However, things soon changed.
Although the two had collaborated on songs such as ‘Poles1469,’ while 6ix9ine was releasing tracks like ‘Gummo’ and was in full-fledged gangster mode, something shifted as in November 2017, Trippie Redd took to Instagram accusing 6ix9ine of having him beaten up and proceeded to label the Brooklyn musician as a “weirdo”, a “rapist”, and “gay”.
6ix9ine (real name Daniel Hernandez) would admit this in court but highlighted that the build-up was significant. According to the ‘GOOBA’ rapper, they both had gang affiliations and got pushed into turning on each other. In court, Hernandez stated, “There’s a lot of jealousy involved. He was signed first. I later on signed… we had a song together, it was successful. Then jealousy, we got into online disputes.”
However, while testifying, Hernandez confirmed he had people assault Redd. The story suggests that Trippie had invited the ‘FEFE’ artist to his video shoot under the false guise he wanted to end the beef. However, he was going to bring 15 people to assault 6ix9ine. However, Hernandez had realised this early as his gang had followed Trippie from his hotel to the shoot. Subsequently, Hernandez had his entire entourage assault Trippie Redd when he arrived.
The story is unclear. However, it is evident that for a brief period of time they were friends before gang politics infiltrated and poisoned what was a very natural friendship.
