"Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine" (2021 release; 3 episodes of about 50 min. each) is a documentary of the phenom that is (was?) Tekashi 6ix9ine. As Episode 1 opens, we are "somewhere in the suburbs... in a heavily guarded house", and we get an audiotape made during his house arrest. We then go to "Bushwick, New York", and we hear from Sara, longtime girlfriend, how she met Danny Hernandez, who at age 15-16 became driven, by anger and by attention-craving, to turn himself into another persona. That persona would become Tekashi 6ix9ine, a self-proclaimed "supervillain" looking for as many followers and likes on Instagram as possible, while he throws himself in the gangsta hip-hop genre...
Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from director Karam Gill, who has looked at the hip-hop music scene in earlier works. Let me be clear: I personally don't feel much of anything that this guy Tekashi 6ix9ine does or doesn't do. I couldn't care less frankly. His determination to become a manufactured supervillain, as long as it leads to fame, seems senseless, if not outright stupid to me. But "Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine" is worth a try for its social commentary, or certainly its social context. What does it tell you about this country when kids who are asked what they want to become when grown up, their first response is "famous influencer" (as oppose to "doctor" or "lawyer" back in the day), and surely Tekashi 6ix9ine embodies that to the extreme. But more than anything, I can't get over the fact that someone wants to create this artificial lifestyle for the sake of pursuing fame and fortune, and then in essence live two bifurcated lives: when the cell phone camera is on (Tekashi), and when the cell phone camera is off (Danny). The opening scene of Episode 1 seems to indicate that Tekashi is heading for serious troubles in Episodes 2 and 3, which I plan on seeing soon. After watching Episode 1, though, I had to take a break. Binge-watching the 3 episodes in a single setting would be like an overdose or at least food poisoning, not to mention that Tekashi's music (forget the videos) is basically unlistenable.
" Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine" recently premiered on Showtime, and all 3 episodes are now available on SHO On Demand and other streaming platforms. If, like me, you are vaguely curious what drives someone to ultimately become this social freak called Tekashi 6ix9ine, I'd suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.
