#GOOBA GOOBA TRIAL#

He’s back like nothing happened, counting money, flashing jewelry, flaming people who doubted him, and drawing smoke from other rappers. We have the answer now, as 6ix9ine unveiled his comeback single “Gooba” and returned to Instagram Live to a record-breaking 1.9 million viewers. What do you say after that? How do you show your face in a community that rewarded you for what looked like realness, that despises people who lie for clout and people who cooperate with the cops? In court, he switched up and gave up associates like Kooda B, who was accused of trying to shoot Keef. A statement released by his attorney following the 2018 arrest on federal charges deflated the Tekashi myth in no uncertain terms, calling the rapper “an entertainer who portrays a ‘gangster image’ to promote his music,” who’d done nothing but get mixed up with the wrong crowd.

Under the threat of jail time, the Brooklyn rapper, born Daniel Hernandez, said 6ix9ine was merely a character he plays.

#GOOBA GOOBA TRIAL#

The 6ix9ine saga jumped through the looking glass last fall when he escaped federal racketeering and firearm charges by pleading guilty and appearing as the star witness for the prosecution during the trial against the Nine Trey Bloods - the set he shouted out throughout his meteoric rise to rap stardom, fueled by the thunderous 2017 hit “Gummo.” The case chipped away at the very idea of Tekashi 6ix9ine, who’d made a name for himself up until that point as the consummate hip-hop troll, a tough guy prone to barking out side-splitting threats in his music and carrying feuds with rivals like Chief Keef out into the streets off record. One of the UK’s most active musical omnivores, reviewer Leicester Bangs, called the band “talented and versatile,” playing “a hip blend of improvised psychedelia, blue-eyed reggae and baggy-funk… the musical combinations they concoct sound remarkably fresh, and interestingly, they seem completely at home in a studio setting.Photo: Courtesy of Tekashi 6ix9ine/YouTube “Our music is like an ongoing conversation,” says Armstrong, ”where we’ll gradually build around a new theme while we’re still playing off the old one.” Since their inception in 2010 as The Sour Deemsters, the band played virtually every weekend in different Harrisonburg, Virginia locations, from rickety wooden stages in West Market Street basements to the refined paint-glazed dining room at Clementine Cafe. “The quartet builds a different set of music for every show, constantly improvising their far-reaching arsenal of songs with extended interludes and accelerated chord progressions,” wrote Justin Filiaggi in an April 2013 article about the band.

The band is Mitchell Waranch, guitarist/vocals Tim Reckley, keyboard/trombone/vocals Andrew Hollifield, bassist/back-up vocals and John Armstrong, drummer/vocals. With the 2013 release of Limes and Forms, a wildly successful Colorado tour in early 2014, and some well-deserved attention from across the pond in the UK, The Deems are broadening their reach far beyond the house parties that are the staple of any university community. Although hard to categorize-with its freewheeling mix of rock, reggae, electronica, and improvisation - the Deems are rapidly becoming one of Virginia’s most in-demand jam bands.

Gooba gooba