Mekaael: Is Tekashi 69 being Blacklisted from Apple Music & Spotify?
Over the last five years, one of the biggest stars in the music and social media industry has been Tekashi 69 (6ix9ine). 6ix9ine’s personality is either loved or hated, many listen to his music or see his Instagram videos and extremely dislike him, or his fans really respect him and love his music. Over the last few years, many of his songs have taken off on mainstream music platforms including ‘GOOBA’ (250 million plays), ‘FEFE’ (600 million plays), ‘BEBE’ (420 million plays), and many more. Everything was looking up for him until November 18th, 2018 when the rapper’s ties and connections with the gang, Nine Trey Bloods, leading him to be charged with illegal possession of a firearm, armed robbery, drug trafficking, armed robbery and attempted murder. He was arrested and sentenced to 47 years in prison. He was set to be released by the time he was 69 years old, how ironic.
Two years later and Tekashi was released. This was due to two different reasons. Firstly, due to him testifying against his other gang members, which the judge rewarded him with lesser sentences, and secondly the CoronaVirus. 6ix9ine has had asthma and breathing issues since his childhood and during his time in prison the situation with Covid-19 had gotten much worse and when he found out the virus targeted the lungs and respiratory system he was able to get approval to finish his jail time as house arrest instead. During his time on house arrest, he was able to film a music video and purchasaed many cars.
On September 4th, 2020, 6ix9ine released his album titled ‘TattleTales’ which contains 15 tracks and 7 features. The album was expected to sell 180k in the first week but ended up only selling 65k due to the fact that he is being black listed by the two biggest music platforms in the world, Apple Music and Spotify. Big Sean’s album Detriot 2 was also releasd on the same day as 6ix9ine’s album and was being promoted on all of Spotify’s advertisements and on many of their famous playlists including Rap Caviar, but 6ix9ine’s songs and album were not being advertised on Spotify at all. On Apple Music many users find new songs on the ‘New Releases” sections and “New Albums” sections but once again the main album being promoted was Detriot 2, and no signs of ‘TattleTales’ at all.
Due to the lack of advertisements Tekashi’s album didn’t sell anywhere near 180k copies in the first week and instead sold only 65k copies. Although this blacklist was most significant on his most recent album, it was also prominent on all of his music releases after he got released frm prison. 6ix9ine realised this and tried to advertise his music to a different demographic by collaborating with many Tiktok Stars at the Hype House and famous youtubers ‘Nelk Boys’ and was on Logan Paul’s Podcast, ‘Impaulsive’, where he gives a much more in depth breakdown of the situation with Apple Music and Spotify and how he isn’t being treated fairly. As for the album itself, the music wasn’t as good as his biggest hits, because he is more of a single artist, meaning that he tends to release more singles, which do extremely better than the songs that are on his albums. Overall 6.5/10 rating for the album.
(Image: Consequence of Sound)
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