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Killer Mike is all about trees ... and we don't mean the Christmas variety.

The Atlanta rapper, activist and marijuana mogul joined us on "TMZ Live" and made the case why Black people deserve a big piece of the cannabis pie.

The way Killer Mike sees it ... ganja's popularity in America has largely been built on the backs of Black folks, so he says they deserve at least 25 percent of the industry -- profits, licenses, businesses, etc.

While legalization and decriminalization continue to gain traction at the state level, one of the criticisms is the lack of access for minorities to make money off a substance that put so many behind bars. Mike uses prohibition to explain why we're making the same mistake twice here.

Killer Mike's also pushing President-elect Joe Biden to be like Bernie Sanders and pledge to decriminalize dank ... and he shares his protest plans for April 20, the unofficial stoner holiday.

Johnny Manziel has officially signed a contract to return to professional football -- inking a deal with the brand new Fan Controlled Football league.

In other words, JOHNNY FOOTBALL IS BACK!

A spokesperson for the FCF confirms the 28-year-old will take the field when the league launches on Feb. 13 -- and he'll be mic'd up with a live camera streaming from his helmet!!

As we previously reported, Manziel was in talks to be the starting QB for the Zappers -- co-owned by NY Mets pitcher Trevor May and sportscaster Bob Menery.

The details about Johnny's contract are still under wraps -- but it seems like it's more about having fun than trying to get rich.

"Football has always been a huge part of my life, and the opportunity to join the FCF was too good to pass up," Manziel says.

"FCF is doing something new and original in Sports, a league that is truly all about the fans and letting them call all the shots. I can’t wait to get started -- this is going to be fun."

The FCF is a 7-on-7 full-contact football league where the fans control everything from the uniforms, logos and the play calling.

The field is only 50 yards long with 10-yard end zones -- which means this game is built for fast action and lots of scoring. All games will take place at a special facility in Atlanta.

Each game runs 60 minutes and will be live-streamed on Twitch. The league says they've already locked in players who formerly competed in the CFL, XFL and Division 1 college football.

Sohrob Farudi -- the CEO of the league -- is clearly fired up about landing Manziel ... saying, "We're excited for Johnny to join the FCF and finally have a chance to be himself both on and off the field."

Before this excited, little lady was a world-renowned singer and songwriter, she was just bundled up baby posing for a frosty photo north of the border in Canada.

Even though this songstress found her calling as a pop artist spreading a good time everywhere she goes ... from the looks of it she could have had a career as a snowman engineer, complete with a carrot nose and two eyes made out of coal.

If you're still struggling to put your finger on the cute celeb kid pic remember ... it's not Christmas until somebody cries tries to build a snowman.

Tyrese and his wife, Samantha Lee Gibson, have made the difficult decision to get a divorce.

The 'Fast & Furious' actor made the announcement Tuesday, saying, "Our intention is to remain the best of friends & strong coparents. We feel incredibly blessed to have found each other and deeply grateful for the 4 years we have been married to each other."

The two married in February of 2017 and had a daughter, Soraya, in 2018.

Tyrese continued, "As if 2020 hasn’t already been extremely grueling and challenging to us all we wanted to mutually speak on this now to keep this energy in 2020 and not take this energy into 2021."

Samantha was Tyrese's second marriage, he was previously married to Norma Gibson from 2007 to 2009 ... the two had a daughter together named Shayla.

Logan Paul's reckless filming of a dead body hanging in a Japanese forest torpedoed a movie he was signed on to star in, and it cost the production company millions ... this according to a new lawsuit.

Planeless Pictures just filed suit against the YouTuber, claiming they inked a deal with him in 2016 to make a movie -- starring Logan as a fictionalized version of himself -- called "Airplane Mode," which was supposed to be a spoof on modern-day trend-setters, like the Paul brothers and other social media folks.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Planeless claims they were all set to have Logan star in, write and help produce the flick, and he'd agreed to help get other influencers on board as well, including Jake Paul, Juanpa Zurita, Nick Bateman, Amanda Cerny and others. The idea was that they'd distribute it through YouTube and other social media platforms -- via said influencers' pages -- in a new, revolutionary way to market and monetize the film.

Planeless even says Google inked a $3 million licensing deal with them for the movie -- but they claim it all came crashing down when Logan foolishly filmed himself in Aokigahara, Japan (otherwise known as the "suicide forest"), where he documented the hanging death of a man up close. You know what happened after that on his end, but according to Planeless' claim, they say his boneheaded move completely destroyed the movie deal.

Chris Harrison will be on your TV sets for the foreseeable future, hosting the 'Bachelor' -- he's not going anywhere, despite a move he's making to Texas.

Rumors swirled this weekend amid news the longtime 'Bachelor' host was packing his bags and moving to Barton Creek -- just outside of Austin -- with his girlfriend, Lauren Zima. Folks heard that and thought ... the dude might be exiting his role with the franchise forever.

That's not the case though -- production sources with direct knowledge tell us he is NOT leaving the show ... he's simply relocating, partly because of a recent partnership deal he struck with a local brewery. He's also from Texas -- once hailing from Dallas -- but as far as work ... we're told he'll commute.

NBD really, tons of stars do this these days ... including one Ryan Seacrest, who pretty much lives bicoastal now because of his NYC-based hosting gig on 'Ryan & Kelly,' along with his L.A. based 'American Idol." Same idea for Chris, and in fact, his commute is much shorter.

Another reason folks thought he was hanging up his tux is because he was MIA for 2 weeks and JoJo Fletcher took over the hosting duties. We're told he was absent because he took his son to college -- in Texas -- and had to quarantine for 2 weeks before returning to the set.

Early reports of shots being fired in downtown Nashville before Anthony Quinn Warner blew his RV and himself to smithereens may be bogus -- because we've now learned there's no evidence he or anyone opened fire.

Federal law enforcement sources involved in the investigation and with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... yes, officers initially responded to the scene on Christmas morning after receiving reports of shots fired -- but since then, officials haven't been able to find anything to back that up.

We're told investigators have zero evidence to suggest Warner opened fire in or around the explosion site. Our sources say their initial theory was that Warner may have fired shots to get the cops to the downtown area where they would hear the recording from the RV of an impending explosion and clear the area so no one would be injured or killed in the blast.

There's another, more sinister theory ... that Warner wanted cops there to get close to the explosion, but officials now don't believe that. They say everything Warner did was to avoid loss of life, which is why he chose 6:30 AM on Xmas morning.

Now, our sources do say ammo was recovered at the scene, including exploded rounds that authorities say came from the RV ... however, they don't have markings of rounds fired from a gun. Authorities are convinced that ammo was in pristine condition until the explosion.

As for that loud bang prior to the blast, heard by the people who called 911 -- and we're told multiple people called -- our federal sources say they believe it could have been a recording of gunfire blaring from the RV, which would accomplish the same purpose of getting cops there to clear the area, but they just don't know for sure.

As we reported, there seems to be increasing evidence the AT&T building was Warner's main target.  Authorities think he may have been paranoid about 5G technology.

Lindsey Vonn will not be walking down the aisle with P.K. Subban after all -- they've called off their engagement ... and their romantic relationship, altogether.

The sports power couple -- who've been together since at least 2018 -- made a joint announcement Tuesday afternoon ... both posting the same photo with similar captions.

Lindsey writes, "Over the past 3 years PK and I have had some incredible times together. He is a kind, good man, and someone I respect a great deal."

She goes on to add, "However, after much consideration we have decided to move forward separately. We will always remain friends and love each other immensely. We ask that you please respect our privacy during this time."

The NHL star expressed a similar sentiment ... saying he will always treasure the time they spent together as a couple and the many laughs they shared.

It's a surprising breakup -- Lindsey and P.K. were one of those duos who looked very much in love, and never had any public signs of turbulence since linking up. You'll recall, he popped the question in the summer of 2019, and she returned the favor in December.

They vacationed all over together too ... always looking super lovey-dovey, and posting tons of cheeky pics along the way. Lindsey was especially proud of the engagement ring he got her as well -- she even wore it prominently at events with him.

It's crazy -- they were actually supposed to get hitched this year but postponed it due to the pandemic. As recently as November, Lindsey told us on "TMZ Live" they were looking forward to rescheduling it sometime in 2021.

Well, that's off the table now. 😟

The robot apocalypse is looking a lot closer -- and a little funkier -- because some advanced machines are flaunting their dancing skills ... complete with choreography!!!

Boston Dynamics released a video to ring in the New Year, which features their two signature machines -- ATLAS and Spot (the dog robot) -- looking very *NSYNC-like ... dancing in unison to the Contours hit, "Do You Love Me."

BD writes, "Our whole crew got together to celebrate the start of what we hope will be a happier year: Happy New Year from all of us at Boston Dynamics." What they don't mention ... how and WHY they got their droids on the good foot like this???

The A.I. is terrifyingly state-of-the-art here -- robots putting on their best "So You Think You Can Dance" audition.

We shoulda seen the choreographed number coming ... we've already seen ATLAS and Spot do everything from parkour to opening doors and picking up boxes.

So, while this is neat and all ... we're personally praying the Boston Dynamics team has a fail-proof shutdown for these things.

WWE Star Shad Gaspard's widow claims the Venice Beach lifeguards on duty the day her husband died left him to fend for himself ... and she wants L.A. and California to pay for her loss.

Siliana Gaspard filed a wrongful death suit ... alleging the lifeguards weren't up to snuff in protecting Shad from drowning, which she says happened on the government's watch.

In her docs, obtained by TMZ, Siliana claims there wasn't sufficient signage on Venice Beach the day Shad died to warn him of the dangers of strong currents with the potential to take him under.

Not only that, but she claims the lifeguard towers that day were significantly understaffed and the lifeguards negligently opted to only save their 10-year-old son ... and left Shad "in the water to die."

You'll recall ... Shad had apparently instructed lifeguards to focus on saving his son, but had gone under the surface when they returned for him.

He was missing for a few days before his body washed up onshore -- but he was, deservedly, hailed for his heroism and sacrifice to save his child.

It's interesting ... after the tragedy, Siliana praised the lifeguards and divers who attempted to save and locate Shad, saying ... "We’d like to once again thank the lifeguards, coastguard, divers, fire and police departments for their efforts."

Based on the lawsuit, it seems she's had a change of heart.

Young Thug's latest stop on his Let's-Disrespect-Rap-Legends tour lands on the doorstep of Jay-Z ... whom he claims doesn't even have dozens of songs people know by heart, unlike himself.

YT made the controversial comment on an episode of the Barstool podcast 'Million $ Worth of Game' ... where Thug boastfully claims his own tunes are anthems -- songs a whole stadium can rap along with him at the drop of a dime.

He went on to say that's very rare in hip-hop -- and then invoked Jigga's name by saying, "Jay-Z ain't got 30 songs like that, where the whole stadium finna sing." Thug immediately got an awkward pause out of most everyone in the room ... with Gillie da Kid trying to be nice and correct him, saying Jay DOES have a lot (an understatement).

Young Thug tried backtracking a bit, explaining he wasn't targeting Jay specifically -- but simply using him as an example of rappers he's seen perform where, apparently, the majority of the crowd doesn't know a song. It's an eyebrow-raising claim, and here's why.

Jay's catalog runs incredibly deep -- he's literally got 100 songs that have appeared on Billboard's Hot 100 ... 21 of which went Top 10, and 4 going #1. Young Thug, by contrast, has 4 Top 10s and two #1s. It's not close.

Of course, his shot at Jay -- which is being torn apart online -- comes one month after he openly talked down on a fellow Atlanta MC ... none other than OutKast's Andre 3000.

During an appearance on T.I.'s 'ExpediTIously' podcast, Thug said he couldn't rap two 3000 songs to save his life ... adding that he never paid attention to the guy, and also claimed Dre wants the younger generation of rappers to kiss his ass. All kinds of trash, really.

One last thing ... Thug apparently has bad blood with Lil Wayne too, and says he thinks he's qualified to take on Weezy in a Verzuz battle ... because of their equal "influence."

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky's romantic holiday trip to Barbados has been anything but boring ... and the new couple just ramped things up with a wild ride on the Caribbean.

Rihanna and A$AP certainly weren't afraid to show a little PDA on their chartered catamaran Monday. The two also hit the water on a jet ski and hopped in an inner tube for some high-speed action.

The couple celebrated Christmas together on Rihanna's home turf, and from what we've seen, the holiday thas been action-packed -- boat trips, dinner dates and plenty of time with friends.

A$AP is Rihanna's first serious relationship since her split from billionaire Hassan Jameel in January. The two dated for nearly 3 years.

Before this holiday vacay, we'd seen A$AP and RiRi strolling the streets of New York City just after it came out they were dating. It's way better seeing them down in Barbados ... less clothing, more smiles!

A Russian sumo wrestler who used to be known as the "world's heaviest boy" has reportedly died at a very young age ... this after years of concern about his extreme weight.

Dzhambulat Khatokhov recently passed away, per Betal Gubzhev -- president of Sumo and Mass Wrestling Federation in Kabardino-Balkaria ... that's where Khatokhov had lived and grew up wrestling. A cause of death is unknown, but word is he'd lately had kidney problems.

The guy was a worldwide phenomenon for a couple reasons -- for one, he competed on the mat, but also other strength challenges (like arm wrestling) and proved to be successful at a young age. Second ... he was absolutely enormous size-wise, especially for his age.

At birth, reports say he only weighed in at around 6 lbs -- but by his first birthday ... he already clocked in at over 28 pounds and continued growing heavier and heavier. By the time he was nine, they say he weighed well over 300 pounds.

Khatokhov became the subject of much speculation, and the focus of several documentaries over the course of his life. Different experts examined him, and most expressed worry his life expectancy would be drastically shorter than normal kids his age.

You might think there was some sort of genetic defect he was dealing with that was causing his excessive weight gain and growth, but according to his mom there was nothing doctors could find to explain it.

She reportedly said this is just how God made her boy, and she, apparently, believed he was fully healthy.

Khatokhov was just 21.

The Nashville police officers who were on scene just minutes before the massive blast walked right by the RV that exploded and devastated the downtown area, and you hear one of them say, "Good spot for a bomb."

Body cam from the Christmas Day explosion was just released, and you hear the 2 cops talking as they pass the RV. One of them says, "That building that it's next to [AT&T] houses all the hard lines for phones throughout the southeast." The other cop says, "Makes sense. Good spot for a bomb."

TMZ first reported, the RV at the scene looked identical to the RV at the home of Anthony Quinn Warner that you can see on Google Maps from last year.

Exactly one minute after the end of that conversation the bomb explodes, decimating the area. One of the shocking things ... the officers don't really react when they hear the bomb go off ... they just go about their job.

You then hear a police dispatcher ordering an immediate roll call, to see if all the officers are safe.

Baby Archie may only be 17 months old, but that's not stopping him from wishing everyone a Happy New Year ... and naturally, it's to the delight of Mom and Dad.

Archie made a surprise appearance on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's first episode of their "Archewell Audio" podcast Tuesday. Meghan first asks Archie if he's having fun, to which Archie replies, "Fun." Then, Dad coaxes him into wishing listeners a "Happy New Year."

It's clear to tell from the audio that both Harry and Meghan are more than excited to hear little Archie speak on the podcast ... Harry can barely contain his own laughter.

The rest of the episode featured some massive stars including Elton John and Tyler Perry ... Stacey Abrams also joined. But, c'mon, Archie upstaged 'em all.

It was just last week when Harry and Meghan were spotted strolling the streets of Beverly Hills. TMZ broke the story ... the couple plunked down $14 million on a Montecito estate back in August.

Harry Styles and Liam Payne may not be together professionally anymore, but on a personal level Liam clearly has Harry's back, applauding him for his fashion choice that triggered some really unfair criticism.

Harry was getting dragged for wearing a dress for a Vogue photoshoot. Candace Owens and some others went after him for his fashion choice ... Owens saying he wasn't manly enough to grace the cover. Yeah, she said that.

Liam says people need to get off Harry's back, saying, "I thought it was great. I think he's enjoying himself and he's free to do as he wishes."

Payne told Capital FM's Roman Kemp ... 2020 certainly isn't the year for people to get upset over what celebs are wearing -- as he says, there are much bigger things happening. Payne also painted Harry as an authentic guy whose success hasn't changed him.