Cardi B Responds To Tekashi 6ix9ine’s Claims That She’s A Gang Member

Following rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine’s courtroom claim that fellow artist Cardi B is also gang member, she has issued a response that seems to simultaneously confirm and deny those reports.

Tekashi 6ix9ine, born Daniel Hernandez, provided testimony for three consecutive days this week during the trial of two of his alleged former associates from the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods gang. In addition to speaking at length about the gang’s illegal activities and detailing how his job was to provide financial support for them, Hernandez on Thursday named rappers Jim Jones and Cardi B as other celebrities connected to the group.

Cardi B, who has previously spoken openly about her affiliation with the Bloods gang, responded to Hernandez’s name-drop in a tweet that has since been deleted, TMZ reports.

“You just said it yourself… Brim not 9 Treys. I never been 9 Trey or associated with them,” the tweet read.

Tekashi 6ix9ine and Cardi B Photo: Getty (2)

Cardi B’s tweet was written in response to another deleted tweet suggesting that Cardi B had always shown pride in being a “Brim,” according to a screenshot captured on Twitter by New York Times reporter Joe Coscarelli.

Cardi B's mention of “Brim” could be a reference to the Mac Baller Brims, which, according to the New York Post, is a set of the Bloods gang that operates in the Bronx area of New York.

While earlier reports indicated that Hernandez claimed that Cardi B was member of the same set as him — the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods — subsequent reports stated that Hernandez was actually asked on the stand if he was aware of Cardi B’s general connection to the Bloods, according to the New York Daily News.

“You knew Cardi B was a Blood?” Alex Huot, an attorney for the defense, reportedly asked. Hernandez then said, “Correct.”

Cardi B seemed to respond to Hernandez’s claims again on Instagram by posting a popular meme: a video of actress Keke Palmer looking at a photo of Dick Cheney and explaining that she doesn’t know who he is.

“I hate to say it. I hope I don’t sound ridiculous. I don’t know who this man is. I mean, he could be walking down the street, I wouldn’t — I wouldn’t know a thing,” Palmer says in the clip. “Sorry to this man.”

A representative for Atlantic Records, the record label Cardi B is signed with, issued a brief statement to Billboard denying that their artist is a member of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, telling the outlet, “This is not true.”

Cardi B, born Belcalis Almanzar, said during an interview with GQ magazine last year that she used to “hang out with a lot of Bloods” as a teenager and eventually joined the gang, but advised young people not to take the route that she did.

“If somebody was to tell me right now, 'I want to join a gang,' I would tell them that it's a waste of your money, it's a waste of your time. And then you can never leave it,” she said. “Sometimes these people are gonna expect you to be at meetings when you have a job. You gotta be at work till 9:30 p.m., and you cannot go to a powwow because you at work. How you tell that to people?”

Hernandez seemed to turn his back on his former associates and denounce his gang ties during a radio interview in November just days before he was arrested, alongside other alleged gang members, in a federal racketeering bust. While the 23-year-old was initially facing upward of 40 years in prison, he cut a deal to cooperate with the prosecution in exchange for a possibly lighter sentence.

Hernandez has been a key witness in the trial of Anthony “Harv” Ellison and Aljermiah “Nuke” Mack, two of his alleged former gang associates. Ellison is accused of having kidnapped and robbed Hernandez last year, but his lawyer has claimed that it was all an act set up by the rapper for publicity. However, in court this week, Hernandez suggested differently, and said that he thought he was going to die during the alleged abduction in July, according to The New York Times.