Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine

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Tekashi 6ix9ine has made a name for himself

creating controversy and speculation.

Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine is in

federal custody.

...a shooting in Midtown early this evening.

Tonight, we're learning it is connected

to a controversial rapper.

Tekashi 6ix9ine, a Brooklyn-based rapper

whose real name is Daniel Hernandez,

denied bail.

If convicted, he faces 32 years to life

in prison.

First of all, should I call you

Danny or Tekashi?

- Danny. - Danny.

Yeah.

What's the difference between the two?

The difference is that no one ever seen Danny.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

Everyone, you know, is based off Tekashi 6ix9ine,

the colored, trash-talking, troll king rapper.

A lot of people just see that.

The world literally hates waking up and seeing this face.

Y'all hate it.

I'm the most successful nigga in the fucking game.

Why? 'Cause I don't give a fuck,

and I tell everyone to suck my dick.

So if you watching this video, suck my fucking dick.

If you my fans, I love you,

but everybody else, suck my fucking dick.

A lot of people always take the world too serious.

And I feel like the world is a game.

You know how people say,

"Play the game before it plays you"?

In the world we live in,

the nice guys don't get the coverage.

The nice guys don't get the attention.

The nice guys don't go anywhere.

It's kind of like a fetish that a human has.

They don't like something,

but they can't stop watching it.

It's like the Joker, right?

You wanna hate him, but you love him,

you know what I'm saying, because he's the bad guy,

but you just end up falling in love with him.

You consistently say, "I hate this guy,"

but you can't stop watching that guy.

You can't help yourself.

There's somewhere deep down

where you fall in love with that guy.

The good is here, but in my situation,

you know, the bad has taken over.

A shooting near the Barclays--

Shooting in Midtown--

Racketeering and firearms charges...

Ba-ba-boom! Nigga, we got him!

I...can't...be...stopped!

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Earth, Wind & Fire's "That's the Way of the World"

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I'm from Brooklyn, New York.

Born and raised in Bushwick.

I'm 24 years old.

I'm a single mother of a five-year-old.

Social media was really big for me

around the time that I was in high school.

Facebook was really my phase.

I started social media.

At the time, I was probably, like, 12.

You know, little messenger shit

like AIM and stuff like that.

Danny messaged me, hit me up, off of Facebook.

Think it went something along the lines, like, "Hi.

Do you know Chris? That's my friend or whatever."

Blah, blah, blah, "I think we know the same people.

My name's Danny, by the way."

I've seen him before tagged in pictures.

I liked him, so I was talking to my friends about him like,

"I haven't met him yet, and I like him.

We talk every day."

Especially being young, that's all you know.

It's like, you, like, can't put your phone down.

The first time we linked up, I had cut school.

That was the first time we kissed.

All we did was kiss though.

I thought it was, like... something so magical.

I'm like, "Oh, my God."

My mom, she's like, "That's your boyfriend?"

I'm like, "Yes."

She's like, "You're gonna bring the boy here.

We're gonna talk to him." I'm like, "Okay."

So he came to the house.

He was just happy to even be around.

He just fed off the energy.

Like, "Oh, this is what family do?"

Like, for him, it was foreign 'cause he didn't have it.

Of course. He didn't get to have a childhood.

So you'll just pop right there.

- Sit down here? -Yeah.

All right.

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You know?

You know what I'm saying?

Danny is a little boy

who just wants love,

who's funny, charismatic.

That's who Danny is.

speaking Spanish

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speaking Spanish

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He would take me to school every day.

He was dropping me off to school one day and he said,

"Do you wanna be my girlfriend?"

As cheesy as--I'm like--

at, like, 8:00 in the morning, I'm like...

I ran to school so happy.

I was like, "I think I got a boyfriend now,

so don't talk to me."

He would go to therapy,

so after school, I would meet him

and we would walk to his therapy.

He had, like, anger management.

He started opening up more

about his upbringing,

his stepfather, and how it affected him.

He covers it very well.

You have to really be on the inside

and really get to know him

to see that there's something wrong.

No one ever seen

just the regular old Mexican, Puerto Rican kid

from Bushwick, New York.

My biological dad left.

After that, I was scared.

And I had no money. I was poor.

What am I supposed to do now?

I would sleep with my mom.

I would go to sleep with my stomach hurt,

and my mom, she would lay over and just cry because she hear

how screeching my stomach would get.

Like, you know what I mean? It was bad.

My stepdad came into my life,

but I didn't know, though, he wasn't my real dad.

He never judged me.

Even if I did something wrong on the baseball field,

'cause he was my baseball coach,

he'd be like, "Nah, nah, you did nothing wrong."

It was just always a positive thing with him.

I felt like my step-pops was a superhero.

He was always that good person.

Like, he was helping people

without thinking about himself.

I've got you.

That's what a superhero does,

and that's what my stepfather did.

When I was younger, I didn't have a TV,

so the only way I could watch movies

is if my step-pop would take me to a movie theater.

You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

It was cheap, so we would go there,

watch movies, and I was always into film.

I was like, "Yo, like, that shit is cool."

Like, you know what I mean?

"Those look like fucking villains."

Hello, Amanda.

You don't know me, but I know you.

I want to play a game.

Live or die.

Make your choice.

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I was 13.

My stepdad asked me to go to the supermarket with him.

I was like, "No, I don't wanna go. Just go."

Never came back.

- -

He got murdered a block away from my crib.

It was broad day. 2:00 p.m.

I felt like my step-pops was invincible,

so when they took him from me, I felt naked.

I was 13. I weighed, like, 150 pounds.

I dropped to, like, 90. I was really dying.

I didn't shower in, like, two months.

I just started bugging in school.

I got expelled in eighth grade.

I just started trapping with my brothers.

It just makes me angry, you know what I'm saying?

Superheroes always die.

Fuck being a superhero.

I wanna be a villain. The villains never die.

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There's a fine line

between a superhero and a supervillain.

It starts when we're young.

Everyone's a good person at first, right?

We start as blank slates.

Good people who just wanna feel the love

the world has to offer.

But then fucked up shit happens.