Fights & Feuds

Diddy's ongoing lawsuit with alcohol dealer Diageo just took a nasty turn, with the booze brand announcing they were cutting ties after he filed suit last month ... but Diddy is firing back.

Diddy's attorney John C. Hueston tells TMZ Hip Hop Diageo's attempts to shut out the Bad Boy mogul is essentially like "firing a whistleblower who calls out racism. It’s a cynical and transparent attempt to distract from multiple allegations of discrimination."

Hueston says Diddy repeatedly raised concerns regarding Diageo's senior execs allegedly using racially insensitive comments prior to filing the lawsuit, which they claim caused biased decision-making on the company's part.

For it's part, a Diageo spokesperson tells us, "We are saddened that Mr. Combs has chosen to recast a business dispute as anything other than that and chosen to damage a productive and valued partnership. Mr. Combs’ bad-faith actions have clearly breached his contracts and left us no choice but to move to dismiss his baseless complaint and end our business relationship. Mr. Combs has repeatedly undermined our partnerships and threatened to publicly defame Diageo if we did not meet his unreasonable financial demands."

They continue, "Diageo believes strongly in the CIRÔC and DeLeón brands and remains committed to their success, which is why we tried for years to salvage the broken relationship with Mr. Combs. We funded the purchase of DeLeón for the joint venture and proceeded to invest more than $100 million to grow the brand. Despite having made nearly a billion dollars over the course of our 15-year relationship, Mr. Combs contributed a total of $1,000 and refused to honor his commitments. We have exhausted every reasonable remedy and see no other path forward."

Diageo is said to have acknowledged the issues by specifying in Diddy's contract that they'd treat his DeLeon tequila the same as other tequila brands, and he only filed the lawsuit in hopes to enforce the contract's fine print.

Bow Wow isn't mincing his words ... he thinks today's wave of hip hop is complete trash and it's to blame for the lack of #1 hits!!!

The veteran rapper didn't hold back on the BET Awards red carpet when asked by Power 106 about the state of today's music.

He says his ears have been incredibly offended this year ... every male rapper he hears talks about "slidin' on the opps" while the women only care about landing a rich dude.

Bow hasn't released an album in over a decade ... opting to make a living performing his classics on his successful Scream Tours instead of forcing creativity in the studio

He thinks talent will eventually creep its way back into the game ... and thinks its best bet is contributions from Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Drake ... the latter star who's about to drop a new album titled "For All My Dogs" soon. Ode to Mr. Wow?

Bow's not alone in his thinking. Ty Dolla $ign says he's pivoting to dance and Atlantic Records signee Symba just took a dump on this year's XXL Freshman list ... which is supposed to signify the new crop of artists leading the charge.

"Vanderpump Rules" is gearing up for another season ... but TMZ has learned Raquel Leviss still hasn't committed to joining the cast and crew for another round of drama.

Sources connected to the show tell us the Bravo series is slated to go back into production for season 11 Wednesday.

Raquel, however, still hasn't said if she'll be along for the ride. We're told both production and Raquel's team are working hard to get her on the show, but she's still at her mental health facility, which continues to be her priority. We're told she has been at the facility for more than two months.

As for the rest of the "VPR" cast, we're told they're all coming back ... which includes Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix.

In case you didn't know, Raquel seemed on the fence about locking in for another season during last season's reunion -- telling Andy Cohen, "I don't know. It's in question right now. I want to."

She wasn't at the mental health facility at the time of the taping of the reunion, however ... which is where her mind might've changed.

It was cloudy with a chance of Prime in Copenhagen on Monday ... 'cause Logan Paul and KSI's meet-up with fans came to an abrupt halt when they started getting rocked with bottles of their own drink line!!

The wild scene went down as the YouTube boxing enemies-turned-business partners were promoting their hydration beverages in Denmark ... when, for some reason, some members of the crowd decided they'd much rather chuck their handouts than consume them.

Now, the whole thing could easily be a publicity stunt to give Prime some free airtime ... and if that's the case, it worked -- 'cause here we are writing about it.

If you watch the video, it's clear the guys never felt they were in harm's way ... especially considering the security guards in attendance appeared to be smiling through the bottle attack as they moved the two social media stars out of the line of fire.

Elon Musk is pulling out all the stops in preparation for a fight with Mark Zuckerberg -- the Twitter honcho just accepted a training offer from UFC legend Georges St-Pierre!!

The shocking development in the potential billionaire brawl went down on Monday ... when Elon replied to GSP's public pitch to lend a hand in beating Zuck to a pulp in the Octagon.

"I'm a huge fan of yours and it would be an absolute honor to help you and be your training partner for the challenge against Zuckerberg 👊😁," GSP said on Twitter ... to which Elon responded, "Ok, let’s do it 🔥🔥."

It's a massive deal for Elon ... considering GSP -- the former welterweight and middleweight champion -- is arguably the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. In other words, Musk will be learning from the best of the best.

GSP -- whose background is karate -- trains at Tristar Gym in Montreal under head trainer Firas Zahabi ... one of the greatest minds in MMA.

GSP's record is 26-2 ... with his only losses coming against Matt Serra and Matt Hughes. He racked up wins over Nick Diaz, Michael Bisping, Dan Hardy, BJ Penn and Johny Hendricks.

Zuck also has some star power in his corner -- Jon Jones recently offered his services to the Facebook co-founder, but it's unclear if he's going to take him up on it.

Elon teaming up with GSP provides more evidence the fight may actually happen -- and as TMZ Sports previously reported, Dana White told us both sides are for real about getting in the Octagon together.

Quavo and Offset stole the show at The BET Awards to honor Takeoff, and while the moment meant a lot for hip-hop, it doesn't mean fans should expect new Migos music any time soon.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ the former foes have actually been cordial behind the scenes for months. Obviously, Sunday night's performance was the first public display they'd worked things out ... but our sources say the reconciliation happened some time ago.

Of course, the next question fans want answered is what does the renewed friendship mean for Migos and the chances Quavo and Offset release new music together?

Our sources say as of now, there's not a plan in place to record anything as a duo -- the goal of the BET show was strictly to honor Takeoff, not a marketing ploy. In fact, it's still not even known if the two would ever use the Migos name again in releasing potential future projects.

What's more ... our sources say if Migos ever was revived, Quavo and Offset would never replace Takeoff with someone else.

TMZ broke the story, things were still nasty between Quavo and Offset during the Grammys in February when they got into it backstage ... but thankfully, that's now a thing of the past.

As we reported, the BET crowd erupted as Takeoff's verse from "Hotel Lobby" pumped through the speakers inside DTLA's Microsoft Theater before Quavo and Offset took over to perform the trio's signature breakout single, "Bad and Boujee."

Cardi B is publicly ripping Offset a new one after the Migos rapper announced to the world Cardi's allegedly cheated in the past.

If you missed the post-and-delete from Offset Monday, he wrote, "My wife f***** a N**** on me gang yall n***** know how I come."

Clearly peeved by his post, Cardi lashed out on Twitter Spaces only hours later denying the claims and saying even if she wanted to cheat on Offset, it's next to impossible because she's just too famous.

She even went as far as to say she'd smack Offset upside the head with a bottle if he made the claims to her face. Cardi referred to Offset as the "country man" to her followers and even alluded to him suffering some sort of downward spiral.

What's not clear is where Cardi and Offset's marriage currently stands -- but things don't seem great.

Cardi was conspicuously absent from Offset's side at the BET Awards last night, which was an emotional gut-wrencher after he publicly reconciled with Quavo to pay tribute to their late bandmate Takeoff.

Cardi also stayed home for Offset's big Paris Fashion Week.

As for fans, they're largely on Cardi's side. Offset's infidelities have their own storyline at this point and many people think the only thing he deserves is a tiny violin.

Jadakiss is voicing his concerns that Jim Jones' and Pusha T's spiraling rap beef could spiral out of control and turn into a violent situation.

The LOX rapper admitted to Bootleg Kev he didn't have a dog in the fight ... but didn't want things to get ugly.

Over the weekend, Jim fired back at Pusha T's perceived jabs from the song he previewed in Paris ... and fire back he did!!!

The Dipset Capo used the Clipse's hit "What Happened To That Boy" to send slick shots at Push's bro No Malice's weight loss, accusing him of doing the drugs they're always rapping about.

Jada's had his share of rap beefs over the years ... he and the Ruff Ryders' once had Beanie Sigel outnumbered with goons at the height of their tension in the '00s.

Mark Zuckerberg may have Jon Jones in his corner, but Elon Musk's potential coach isn't too shabby himself ... the legendary Dominick Cruz, the G.O.A.T. bantamweight, tells us he's down to get the Twitter owner ready to fight!

38-year-old Cruz joined Babcock on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs weekdays on FS1) ... where Dom offered his services.

"I would coach and train Elon Musk in a heartbeat. I would start with him immediately. I'm a fan of that guy and the things that he's doing for the world and the things that he stands for," Dom told us.

"He's a special guy in the world right now and so I would love to be in his corner to watch him execute martial arts which brings us all together."

Musk could do a lot worse than 24-4 Cruz ... who has beaten the likes of greats such as Urijah Faber, T.J. Dillashaw and Demetrious Johnson.

Remember, Jones offered his services to Zuck, writing ... "You already know I am Team Zuck ... Let me know if you need a training partner!"

As for the naysayers who say Musk vs. Zuckerberg is a bad idea and disrespectful to martial arts, Cruz (and many others) believes the opposite.

"If you're gonna say this is gonna be the highest level of sport and we're gonna call it that, that might be disrespectful, but nobody's saying that. This is just fun. This is just making fun, and letting people get their aggressions out and their differences in a healthy way."

Of course, we broke the story on Thursday ... UFC president Dana White spoke to both billionaires, who he told us are "absolutely dead serious" about fighting each other in an Octagon.

The UFC honcho said he believes it'd be the biggest fight, by far, in combat sports history.

We reported on Friday ... the biggest holdup at this point is the roughly 50 lbs. size advantage that Musk enjoys.

Assuming the kinks can be ironed out, some of the most dangerous men in the world are ready, willing, and able to whip the rich guys into shape.

James Cameron's harsh criticism of the imploded OceanGate submersible, and its CEO Stockton Rush, is pissing off OceanGate's co-founder ... who says Cameron's just guessing what happened to Titan, and has no actual knowledge.

Guillermo Söhnlein is pushing back on the "Titanic" director's assertion the submersible was "too experimental to carry passengers" ... saying it's impossible for James to know all the details.

Guillermo went on Times Radio Friday in the U.K., and defended OceanGate and Stockton, saying ... "It's impossible for anyone to really speculate from the outside ... I know from firsthand experience that we were extremely committed to safety and risk mitigation was a key part of the company culture."

Remember, James is blaming the tragedy on Stockton -- who was piloting Titan when it imploded -- claiming he ignored warnings from the industry about the safety of Titan's design, and then made matters worse by taking tourists aboard the vessel.

James, who made 33 dives to the famous shipwreck, said he and others in the submersible community voiced concerns about the Titan submersible, but Stockton pushed forward, undeterred -- kind of like the Titanic captain who went full steam ahead into an ice field.

Guillermo says James' views are not gospel -- he says there are differing opinions and views within the industry about every aspect of deep ocean dives and submersibles ... and, most importantly, he says James wasn't involved in the design, engineering, building, testing or diving on Titan.

Despite the 5 deaths aboard Titan, Guillermo says this isn't the end of OceanGate ... he says the company needs to investigate what went wrong, and apply those lessons moving forward.

Young Thug surprised fans Friday by dropping an album from behind bars that's LOADED with A1 features -- and, clearly, released to rival Gunna's own surprise project!!!

Orchestrated by Metro Boomin, "Business Is Business" officially stands as Thugger's third album, but due to his ongoing YSL RICO case ... it leans heavily on Drake, 21 Savage, Future, Travis Scott, Lil Gotit and many more to complete the project.

The album proves Thugger's got real friends in his corner when he needs it most, and while he could've asked Gunna to add more star power ... it's conspicuous that he didn't!!!

Akademiks claims to have audio of Thug instructing Lil Durk to save his Gunna disses for his "BIB" album for a song that would've featured Durk and Lil Baby.

Interestingly, there's no such Durk and Baby track on Thug's album and his sister insists Ak's recording is AI, so it all could be a ploy to generate album streams.

Either way, the clear intention of Thug's album is to dwarf Gunna's that dropped last week.

Francis Ngannou is opening up about his recent face-to-face with Jon Jones -- where the two rivals got up close and personal -- and the former UFC heavyweight champ made it very clear it's still a fight he wants!

TMZ Sports talked to the 36-year-old MMA superstar days after the two towering men exchanged mostly pleasant, if not a bit tense, words at PFL 5 in Atlanta on Friday ... breathing new life into the fight fans want as much as any matchup in the sport.

"I think [it's possible]," Ngannou told us, adding a "cross-promotion" could be in store "in order to give the fans what they want."

"All the parties are down except for one," Francis said ... meaning the fighters and PFL are in, while the UFC is not (the promotion doesn't do cross-promotions with other companies).

Now that he's seen the bigger version of Bones Jones, we asked Francis about the heavyweight iteration of Jon.

"I will say I am more comfortable with a heavy Jon Jones than the Jon Jones of light heavyweight because of course, he gave an impressive performance against Ciryl Gane, but for the first minute, the first interaction and striking, he didn't look good."

Ngannou continued ... "He wasn't on point, as sharp as in light heavyweight, and for me that's the best -- I want Jon heavy! I want him heavier if he can put on more size."

Of course, Jones needed only half a round to beat Gane at UFC 285 in March, his first scrap at HW, but despite the win, Francis clearly wasn't impressed.

The Predator wholeheartedly believes Jon's in for a rude awakening if he thinks a fight with him would mimic the Gane bout.

"He never faced a guy like me, a real side heavyweight," Francis told us, explaining Gane was a perfect matchup stylistically for Jon.

"I think Ciryl was a perfect pro fighter to run into because there wasn't a threat. He's not a guy that's gonna knock you out with one shot."

Travis Kelce says Ja'Marr Chase gave the Kansas City Chiefs some prime bulletin board material after dissing Patrick Mahomes last week ... warning the Bengals receiver he better back up his words on the field -- or it's gonna get ugly.

Remember, the former LSU star sparked some drama over his "Pat who??" comments when he was asked about the best player in the NFL ... to which Mahomes responded with a pic wearing his Super Bowl rings, saying, "That's who."

Kelce addressed the beef on his "New Heights" podcast with his brother, Jason, this week ... saying, "I thought it was a little bold. The guy is a two-time league MVP, two-time Super Bowl MVP."

"It is what it is, dog. Who doesn't love some good locker room banter, man?" he added. "Shoutout to Ja'Marr Chase for holding it down for his QB, but don't you ever disrespect Pat Mahomes, now."

"If you wanna talk your s***, talk your s***, pimp. You just better back it up."

Unfortunately, the Chiefs will have to wait until New Year's Eve to get revenge on Chase and the Bengals in an AFC Championship Game rematch ... but we're sure the guys in K.C. aren't going to forget about his words anytime soon.

Kesha and Dr. Luke are no longer beefing in court ... because they just announced a settlement in their defamation battle after years of nasty back and forth.

The singer says she and the famous music producer agreed to a resolution of the lengthy legal battle ... though the terms of the settlement are unclear.

It's the end of the road for a long legal war that's been winding through the courts for nearly a decade ... remember, Kesha accused Dr. Luke of an alleged 2005 rape back in 2014 and he denied her claims and sued her for defamation.

In a statement, Kesha says ... "Only God knows what happened that night. As I have always said, I cannot recount everything that happened."

She adds ... "I am looking forward to closing the door on this chapter of my life and beginning a new one. I wish nothing but peace to all parties involved."

Dr. Luke says he appreciates Kesha acknowledging she cannot recount what happened on the night she claimed he drugged and raped her, and he still denies it ever happened.

Luke says ... "I never drugged or assaulted her and would never do that to anyone. For the sake of my family, I have vigorously fought to clear my name for nearly 10 years. It is time for me to put this difficult matter behind me and move on with my life. I wish Kesha well."

Calling Daniel Cormier PISSED at American Airlines may be an understatement ... the MMA legend ripped into the airline's staff on social media after they gave his seat away, calling the whole ordeal "insane" and "unprofessional!"

The 44-year-old former UFC double champ said the aggravating incident went down at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday.

"I am literally in the worst experience," Cormier started ... "It’s unreal how horrific @AmericanAir staff at SFO is behaving right now."

"I show up to my flight to find out my seat has been given away."

Cormier continued, saying an AA employee walked away from him and shut a door in his face.

"If that isn’t enough this [American Airlines employee] won’t even speak to me," Cormier said. "This dude walks away from me as I am speak and he slams the door in my face."

"Wouldn’t even speak a word to me and then slams the f***ing door in my face!"

The UFC Hall of Famer and current UFC broadcaster was trying to get to Las Vegas for meetings with fighters ahead of Saturday's Fight Night card.

Kenny G's ex-wife is pissed the musician is renting out his swanky pad to Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez ... urging Kenny to sell off the place so she can get paid.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Kenny's ex Lyndie Benson claims she's entitled to get a hefty paycheck per the details of their 2013 divorce settlement -- which says she'd get 25% of proceeds on the Malibu estate if Kenny decided to sell it for over $40 mil ... a price she thinks it's well worth today.

As we reported, Kenny's renting the place to Jeff and Lauren at a $600K per month price tag.

Lyndie claims she was unaware Kenny moved out so Jeff could move in, and thinks he's renting it to keep the cash out of her hands.

For those unaware, the Malibu mega property was a big debate amid Kenny and Lyndie's divorce, but they ultimately agreed they wouldn't sell it at the time.