In the midst of a full-scale press tour, 50 Cent took a moment to chop it up with Angie Martinez, who has recently been killing it as the host of Infamous: The Tekashi 6ix9ine Story. Given their shared fascination with the young rapper, it was only a matter of time (55-minute mark) before the topic of 6ix9ine was raised.
When asked whether 6ix9ine can still thrive in music after everything that transpired, Fif seems convinced that the kid will be alright. "There's nothing that will stop him from selling records," he states, reasoning that many of the more vocal detractors haven't paid for music in years. "They're not the music-buying audience. Middle America has kids that understand that you didn't support people who were gonna hurt your mom. That you didn't support people who were going to hurt you. They do try to understand the energy that goes on it and all the terminologies and all that stuff. But they do understand that part."
Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
"They're going, 'was I supposed to keep it real and do 40 years for the dudes who were gonna do something to my mother and they was actually plotting to really hurt me?' To the kids, they don't understand it. They don't understand the street stuff." 50, ever in the know, also alludes that the man backing 6ix9ine, Lucian Grainge, will not allow the rainbow wonder to fail. "That's the machine, Ang. That's the big machine." He also reveals that 6ix9ine's court date set his record label back $280k. "They had a full music video set up for him to shoot. Full production to shoot the video to a song they recorded. With all the energy around him being released, if you don't hear anything until a song surfaces? Every kid would have been saying 'let me see what he said.' It would have went so far.'"
"He'll have the same fear 2Pac expressed that his fear was," he continues. "He expressed that he would get killed by a random nobody. That's who Tekashi has to be worried about as far as gang activity. As far as the energy going on outside." Angie laughs, joking that Fif would still do a documentary if that happened. "Absolutely," he maintains, sporting a devilish grin. "This is hip-hop culture we're documenting. Somebody has to cover it."