As Tekashi 6ix9ine’s testimony continues, the rapper told the court that Cardi B and Jim Jones were members of the notorious Bloods gang.
Tekashi69 – real name Daniel Hernandez – took the witness stand in Manhattan federal court to testify against two of his former fellow Nine Trey Bloods gang members, Anthony ‘Harvey’ Ellison and Aljermiah ‘Nuke’ Mack, who are facing racketeering and firearms charges.
During yesterday’s proceedings (September 19), the 23-year-old named other members of the gang, implicating himself in the process as part of a plea deal to cut down his potential jail time.
Two of the names that emerged were Cardi B and Jim Jones.
Hernandez testified that Brooklyn rapper Cardi had ties to the Nine Trey Bloods gang – however, the I Like It artist denies the claims.
Earlier this year in an interview with GQ, Cardi spoke about her teenage years affiliated with a gang.
As reported by GQ, Cardi said:
When I was 16 years old, I used to hang out with a lot of… Bloods. I used to pop off with my homies. And they’d say, ‘Yo, you really get it poppin’. You should come home. You should turn Blood.
And I did. Yes, I did. And something that – it’s not like, oh, you leave. You don’t leave.
However, the ‘Bloods’ Cardi has referred to apparently aren’t from the Nine Trey Bloods gang – they’re the Brim Bloods.
In a since deleted tweet, Cardi wrote in response to Tekashi69’s testimony: ‘You just said it yourself… Brim not 9 Trey. I have never been 9 Trey or associated with them.’
Reps for the Hustlers star also told Metro the claims were false.
The 23-year-old also named Jim Jones in his testimony as a gang member, who was an original member of hip-hop collective The Diplomats.
Over the past three days, the rapper has testified to becoming a member of the gang in November 2017 and participating in violent crimes, including shootings, assaults and drug trafficking, TMZ report.
Tekashi69 was arrested in November 2018, and was originally facing a minimum of 47 years and maximum of life in prison after being charged with nine federal counts, including racketeering, firearms offences and drug trafficking.
It’s for this reason he entered a guilty plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to testify against fellow members. While on the stand, he identified Ellison and Mack by pointing at the defendants in court, backing up the prosecution’s claim they both belonged to Nine Trey Bloods.
When asked in court if he entered the plea deal to help the US government or get himself an easy sentence, the rapper replied: ‘A little bit of both.’
Tekashi69 explained his role in the Bloods gang involved ‘making hits’ and being the ‘financial support for the gang’. He stated the money he made through rapping was not only used for gang members’ personal use, but also for the acquisition of firearms.
In return, the rapper said he got his ‘career’ as the gang provided him with street credibility as well as protection.
The trial is ongoing.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com
After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.