Why is Tekashi 69 so popular?
Explaining the rise of New York rap star 6ix9ine
When a rapper with a colourful (no pun intended) history takes the stage, it is important to observe and explain what he does to succeed.
To paraphrase Tupper memory is the daughter of attention. By this defintion if you get someone’s attention you can alter how and what they remember of you
Quite simply 6ix9ine is getting in your head by being so memorable. In case you are wondering why, let me break it down for you from my point of view.
- Hair
In the vast majority of hip hop, even in the soundcloud rap era, we have yet to see a major figure who has styled his hair so colourfully, and without any regard to the normal conventions that male rap stars conform to.
Take for example Jay Z, who for the most part of his career has had his hair extremely short, except for the times when he is recording an album. That kind of set a standard, that men would conform to.
As Carmen Simon, the scientific expert on memory states “… people typically forget 90% of the content they look at.” With such a small window for you to remember radically different hair colour certainly would set an individual like Tekashi apart from the rest of the pack.
If you think, this is a joke go check out the study called “Hair Colour and Courtship: Blond Women Received More Courtship Solicitations and Redhead Men Received More Refusals”, you’ll be suprised by what you find.
2. His Music
Put his song Gummo next to a Trippie Redd, Lil Durk or Drake song and you’ll see why he grabs your attention.
“ Memory, the daughter of Attention, is the teeming mother of wisdom.” Grab attention, and you’ll imprint yourself into the person’s memory.
The loud chanting nature of the music, is something that is very, very strange to the landscape of modern day pop music. When you consider the constrast between him and Drake, Trippie Redd or even Lil Durk, you can see why he has an outsized repuation.
Energy is also particuarly, important to consider in this respect. When you have energetic music, the type that hypes you up, you are more likely to listen and remember it than 10 slow, artistically brilliant songs. In rap, especially, attention is king.
Therefore attention grabbing music will always win out if it coupled with a persona who has strange backstory involved.
3. His History
Now his history where it gets dicey, and believe me, when you start to understand it, its some disturbing stuff. Let me try to explain it you briefly, I wont be able to fully cover it in depth, because everybody has their own point of view and it taks too long in a blog post to fully cover it. Plus I am not a lawyer, so try to take everything I say with a pinch of salt, no make that alot of salt.
Basically, 6ix9ine was charged for sexual misconduct with a minor, with regards to use of a child in a sexual performance. There was videos of an indecent nature with a child that was uploaded to social media. Police found out and, the rest is history. 6ix9ine has had to plead guilty regarding the charges. (The case is still somewhat open so I will leave it at that, once it closed I might revisit this.)
So, the case provides and- this is weird to mention in the same breath as his persona’s other components, a unforgettable magnetic force that drives attention to him. The details once they start stacking up, certainly would crush every other rapper, except 6ix9ine is not any other rapper.
Why?!
Yes, the general details are disturbing, and yes what happened was truly awful, and yes he should have used his brain, and yes he is trying to lie his way out of this PR nightmare. But, everytime somebody mentions it in the same breath as his antics, it is just reinforcing the ‘bad boy’ persona he so clearly is chasing for.
Look no further than modern day politicians who milk scandals for attention.
Let me be clear I disavow his behaviour 1000%. It is truly awful. I am just trying explain from my point of view, the components of his public persona.
All in all, I have taken three characteristics that are unique in 6ix9ine’s persona, that are contributing to rise in popularity. I disavow his behaviour, which has resulted in his many legal troubles.
Remember there is alot ‘wrong’ about what he does, and when you add it together it makes for an attention grabbing individual, which leads you remembering him as long there is some spotlight on him.
