Hot Vegas

Lil Jon isn't feeling love or friendship from Live Nation, which he claims is using his song title, "Lovers & Friends," for a festival he's not even playing -- so, now the King of Crunk's threatening a lawsuit.

TMZ Hip Hop obtained a copy of the letter Jon's team fired off Monday to the concert-promoting corporation ... detailing his efforts to reach a financial agreement over the incredibly popular Las Vegas festival.

Jon says he and Live Nation began talks back in May 2022 through one of his lawyers, Doug Davis, and assumed Live Nation would do the right thing. We're told he didn't want to push too hard because he was focused on ensuring last year's festival -- headlined by Jon, Usher and Ludacris -- was a success.

Now it's a year later, and Usher recently announced the lineup for this year's lineup -- boasting megastars Chris Brown, Missy Elliott, 50 Cent, Nelly ... but no Lil Jon!!!

In the letter, Jon's powerhouse attorney Ed McPherson compares putting on a "Lovers & Friends" fest without Jon ... to having a "Don't Stop Believin'" festival without Journey, or a "Cheeseburger in Paradise" festival without Jimmy Buffett.

It's an obvious attempt to put the dispute in terms Live Nation's attorneys will understand.

Sources connected to Jon tell us he's been hoping to avoid litigation, and for months, attempted to reach a settlement.

For the record, Jon readily admits his "Lovers & Friends" -- from his 2004 "Crunk Juice" album -- is a cover of Michael Sterling's 1991 song, but insists his version is the one that became "omnipresent in the Black community" ... so much so, Live Nation's slapped the name on its festival.

Bottom line ... Lil Jon believes they owe him big, because Live Nation's trading off his hard work to create such a lasting hit.

Get ready, Seattle ... the NBA is coming back -- at least, that's according to Gary Payton, who tells TMZ Sports he truly believes the Association is gearing up to put a squad back in the city soon.

The NBA legend said he feels it'll all come as part of an expansion effort in the next two or three years.

Payton explained ... he thinks NBA commissioner Adam Silver will add two teams to the league, one in Las Vegas -- and the other in Seattle. He said he figures it'll all go down around 2025.

"I think it's gonna happen," The Glove said. "I think us and Vegas should be a good starting point for what the NBA wants to do."

Of course, the league used to have a team in Seattle -- Payton played for it for 13 of his 18 NBA seasons -- but it relocated the franchise to Oklahoma City following the 2007-08 season.

Seattle mainstays have been pining for a return of the SuperSonics almost ever since -- with even Russell Wilson fighting for it during his time as the Seahawks' quarterback.

Payton tells us he's doing everything he can to facilitate the move ... saying he's already had talks about potentially being involved in the new ownership group.

"I'm already in the works with that," he said.

The NFL Pro Bowl captains have been announced ... but they're not superstar athletes like Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes -- it's Pete Davidson and Snoop Dogg!!

TMZ Sports has confirmed ... the "Saturday Night Live" alum and rap legend will be going head-to-head when the festivities go down next month near Las Vegas ... with Pete representing the NFC, and Snoop leading the AFC.

It's unclear what exactly their roles will be ... but we're assuming they'll be working alongside Peyton and Eli Manning, who were named the coaches for each conference.

Of course, Eli and Pete (a massive Giants fan) have built a tight friendship recently -- they even share a joint Instagram account -- so we take it their chemistry will certainly be a plus when the competition goes down.

As for Snoop, he's always had ties to the sport ... and he even has his own youth football league. On top of that, he gave a helluva performance at Super Bowl LVI last year.

Snoop spoke about his captaincy in a statement to People ... saying, "I'm comin' back to the NFL field, but this time, instead of performing, I'm going head-to-head with Pete and competing for the title of The Pro Bowl Games Champion."

"The competition is going to go off, but we all know that Peyton and our AFC squad are gonna do some big things. We'll end up on that podium."

Davidson kept it short and sweet ... adding, "I'm doing this to impress my Uncle Mike."

Usher and Pusha T have yet to unify for a record throughout their illustrious careers, but that could change, seeing how eager their convo was in Paris while checking out some fashion.

The R&B legend was at the Wales Bonner Autumn/Winter 2023 show when he ran into King Push. The fellas dapped it up, exchanged pleasantries ... and at the end, Ursh told the Clipse rapper, "We gonna make it really happen."

Push was all smiles and appeared to be in agreement. Get these 2 some studio time and a producer!!!

The bright orange hairdo Usher's been rocking for a couple of months finally got the attention it was seeking with the string of international posts -- and as you can imagine, the IG haters have been roasting him like a chestnut at Christmastime.

Tuesday marked a big day for Usher outside the fashion show ... his Lovers & Friends Festival announced a blistering lineup with Missy Elliott, 50 Cent, Chris Brown, Bow Wow, Omarion, Soulja Boy, and way too many other superstar names to list in this sentence.

Bryce Hall seems to have put his boxing skills to the test in Sin City, punching a nightclub security guard in the head, and it's all on video -- an incident that could land him in some legal trouble.

TMZ obtained the footage, shot Friday night in Las Vegas outside XS nightclub at the Wynn, showing the TikTok star getting physical with security -- including a punch to the side of the guy's head.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... LVMPD responded to a call from XS and police ended up citing Bryce with two counts of battery and one count of trespassing, all misdemeanors. We're told the case will be submitted to the District Attorney.

As for what sparked the fight ... we're told Bryce and a friend were kicked out of the club during a Calvin Harris performance after being invited up to the DJ booth.

In the video, you see Bryce throw the punch ... and it then takes four security guards to take him to the ground.

Remember ... Bryce is famous for his TikTok account, but he's also boxed before ... getting destroyed in a June 2021 boxing match against fellow social media star Austin McBroom.

Bryce use to live in Los Angeles, but bought a house in Las Vegas in 2022. He also attended and posted at the AVN awards over the weekend.

An organization that helps people bail out of jail -- and supported by big celebs -- has shut down after getting sued by a man who was shot days after the shooter was released on bail ... bail posted by the org.

The Bail Project has a list of big celebs behind it, including John Legend, Danny Glover and Richard Branson.

The Bail Project posted $3,000 bond for Rashawn Gaston-Anderson last December. He had been arrested on burglary charges and had a long rap sheet, including attempted grand larceny, carrying a concealed weapon, felony burglary and auto theft ... this according to 8NewsNow.

Six days after being released on the $3,000 bond, Gaston-Anderson shot a Las Vegas man, Chengyan Wang, 7 times.

Gaston-Anderson copped a plea on charges of attempted robbery, mayhem with enhancements for using a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to 7-18 years.

Wang, who apparently has permanent injuries, is now suing The Bail Project, claiming it did not do due diligence before posting bail for Gaston-Anderson. The Clark County D.A. who prosecuted Gaston-Anderson said, "One can say, in a sense, they are vouching for the person."

The Bail Project, which has posted bond for 51 people in the Las Vegas area since 2021, called the incident "an absolute tragedy."

Megan Thee Stallion might still not have all of hip hop in her corner after the Tory Lanez verdict -- but she's got one of the biggest pop stars around backing her ... Adele.

The singer sent a heartful message of support Friday to MTS ... who was just vindicated after a jury unanimously decided Tory had, in fact, shot her in 2020 ... and was guilty of the charges brought against him. In light of that, Adele's wishing her peace for the holidays.

Check it out ... Adele name-dropped Meg at her Vegas residency show, saying she hopes she has a "very, very, Merry, Merry Christmas" ... going on to say that she can now do whatever the hell she likes without this thing hanging over her like it has for the past 2 years.

The crowd cheered, and it's clear ... Adele fully supports Meg -- unlike some of Megan's peers in the rap industry, who've cast doubt on her story and painted her as a liar.

All of that turned out to be moot this week, however ... because, as you know, Tory was convicted and taken into custody immediately -- right in front of his kids and family. Megan wasn't in the courtroom Friday, but she's had ample support from folks right outside.

Matty Healy is back to planting his lips on people during live performances -- something that apparently needed to be clarified as unproblematic in 2022 ... by the kiss-ee herself.

The 1975 frontman was performing with his band in Vegas Friday to a packed crowd. At one point, he was singing their song "Robbers," during which he pulled up a female fan from the crowd and started to get all love-dovey with her in the middle of the show.

Soon enough, he went in for some suck-face ... and she kissed him back. It got a huge response from the audience -- mostly ladies losing their minds in jubilation.

On Twitter, the reactions are by and large joke-y jealous posts -- with tons of folks writing it should've been them, etc. But it would seem some on the bird app were offended on behalf of this gal who made out with MH, because she felt the need to clear something up.

She identified herself as the woman who was kissed and made sure to clear Matty's name of any perceived wrongdoing -- namely, kissing someone without their consent -- by writing, "On a real note I do want to state some facts before we get any farther, i had this on my phone because he mentioned at some point 'I can only make out with you'."

The woman added, "So I did this, he saw it and brought me up, HE ASKED before he kissed me!  Also I’m a grown age of 24." In other words, Matty boy had permission here.

FWIW, the eccentric singer has a bit of a history of smooching with people on stage ... female and otherwise. He's puckered up with men in the past too, notably in the UAE where homosexuality is generally criminalized. Dude just likes to spread the love.

Adele barely got through opening night of her Vegas residency ... repeatedly dissolving into tears, saying she was super scared to take the stage.

The Caesars Palace Colosseum was unsurprisingly packed Friday night, as Adele told the crowd she was "so scared and nervous."

As for why ... as you know, the residency was scrapped at the last minute in January after there were production disputes and COVID concerns. She took heat for the cancelation, and a reboot seemed uncertain.

Adele told the crowd, “I should be giving you a standing ovation. Thank you so much for coming back to me. I really appreciate it. You look amazing and it looks just what I imagined it would look like, it's perfect."

She went on ... "I'm so scared and nervous, but I am so happy. I don't know what I was thinking putting piano ballads at the top of the set ... hopefully over time my nerves will disappear. I would also really like to thank Caesars because there have been a lot of rumors and they never once asked any questions, they've been amazing."

Adele's man, Rich Paul, son Angelo, and good buddy James Corden were all front and center.

Ric Flair came up with a convenient way to get everyone high on his signature weed ... by using his own ganja blower to get smoke in fans' faces!!

The WWE legend threw on one of his famous robes and got the party started in a recent video ... saying, "Ric Flair Drip go Wooooooooooo!!"

The Nature Boy then used the weed blower (if that's what it's called) to blow potent smoke in the faces of those around him ... and you can tell the 73-year-old was having the time of his life.

"Let’s Wake Up To Ric Flair 💧! See You Soon Vegas! WOOOOO!," the 16-time World Heavyweight Champion captioned the video.

As you know, Ric joined his friend, Mike Tyson, in the cannabis business earlier this year, with the former heavyweight boxer collaborating with Naitch on his "Ric Flair Drip" line.

In September, the two icons linked up for an epic toking sesh ... smoking blunts after attending a cannabis conference in Chicago.

According to Benzinga, Ric's cannabis line includes many products that pay homage to Flair's fondness of flowers, vape cartridges, sweets, pre-rolls, and flower jars.

Flair is taking his brand to Sin City next ... and it appears the Hall of Famer isn't coming empty-handed.

Kevin Hart just added a new car to his already impressive collection ... an upgraded 1987 Buick Grand National GNX with a badass nickname.

The comedian/actor unveiled the car this week at the MagnaFlow booth at SEMA, a famous car show in Vegas, and Kevin's calling his new whip "The Dark Knight."

We're told it took 8 months for mechanics to restore the car to Kevin's liking ... the Buick's got a new exhaust, carbon fiber hood, splitter and a custom front fascia bumper.

The interior's also been updated to look more modern ... and Kevin and his design team swapped out the Buick V6 engine for a V6 engine from the Cadillac V-Series.

Kevin's ride is still embracing its 1980s roots ... most notably the T-top.

If you've wanted to chat with a departed loved one while sippin' on a mimosa, then you should set your sights on Las Vegas ... because an upcoming event is giving you the opportunity to dine with the dead.

"Brunched By An Angel" is set to kick off next month at the Palms hotel, with a few shows going down each month until January ... and you won't believe what they've got planned.

At an event where "VIPs dine with the RIPs," the 272 guests will be greeted with a musical set and some brunch (of course) ... and are promised "the best odds for anyone that has ever hoped to get a reading from a celebrity medium."

The production's put on by Emmy Award-winning EP Shane Farley ... and is hosted by psychic mediums Reginald Lewis, Loriann Mans and Christopher Allan.

Guests are able to get some direct connections from the mediums ... and some seats will even be left empty for them to sit with certain groups to guarantee someone at that table can be read.

Kim Kardashian knows how to roll with the punches ... even if the punch is dangerously high winds forcing your private jet to get outta Las Vegas, thereby derailing your birthday party plans!

Yeah, Kim's 42nd birthday was dealt a blow from Mother Nature Saturday night, but the story has a happy ending ... in the form of the most bougee late-night burger run you'll ever see.

But, the night started with Kim, Khloe Kardashian, Kris Jenner and a bunch of Kim's friends boarding Kylie's private jet -- Kim's must be in the shop -- for a quick flight to Las Vegas where the gang planned to take in Usher's residency.

But when they got close to Vegas, air traffic control said it was unsafe to land due to extremely high winds -- gusts up to 60 MPH -- so, the pilot had to bang a U-turn and land back in Los Angeles.

Kim's party didn't stop though ... after hopping on a party bus, someone busted out the jello shots again -- looks like Kim had plenty -- and they ended up at an In-N-Out, naturally, for burgers.

And, wow, what a scene inside! Kim in a bikini top, and Khloe in a nude catsuit ... with the whole glammed-up crew standing at the counter ordering, just like normies. As everyone knows ... there's no VIP in the late-night fast food game!

The birthday girl looked, and sounded, very pleased with a burger to cap off her night -- blame it on the shots. It wasn't Usher in Sin City, but Kim seemed alright with the change of plans.

TikTok stars Nicky Champa and Pierre Boo have made things super official -- TMZ has learned they tied the knot this summer.

According to the marriage license obtained by TMZ ... the influencer couple got hitched in August in Clark County, Nevada ... AKA Las Vegas. Unclear if Elvis was involved in their nuptials.

The records also show that Nicky and Pierre took each other's last names.

Of course, marriage may not come as a huge surprise to some of their fans. The couple's been attached at the hip since they became an item back in 2017.

Pierre and Nicky rose to fame as an "it" couple after launching their joint IG account. Over the last few years, they also moved in together and started their TikTok careers.

They have a combined follower count of more than 25 million on the video platform.

As we reported, the two listed their Bell Canyon home in July. Clearly, they've had a pretty busy summer and have been making some big moves.

LeBron James sent a message loud and clear to Adam Silver on Wednesday night ... sayin' if the NBA expands to Las Vegas, he's calling dibs on owning the new team.

"I want the team here, Adam," the Lakers superstar said. "Thank you."

James, a newly crowned billionaire, has made the public plea to get the Sin City squad before -- back in June, he said on an episode of "The Shop" his goal was to be the LV honcho one day.

But, following L.A.'s 119-115 preseason loss to the Suns in Vegas, James made it crystal clear to media members in attendance that he was dead serious about it all.

"I would love to bring a team here at some point," James said on the postgame podium. "That would be amazing."

Unclear if the Association has imminent plans to expand -- but if a move to 32 teams is on the horizon, rumors have swirled that Seattle and Las Vegas would be the targets.

James is clearly in love with the Nevada idea ... going as far as to say Vegas has "the best fan base in the world."

Coolio had a lot of things in the works before his sudden passing last week -- including the fact he was about to headline his first ever Vegas residency this month ... TMZ has learned.

Shortly before he died, Coolio was actually in talks with a production company called Fan Rebellion -- which produces an ongoing Vegas residency show called Boombox!, held at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino ... this according to FB's Chief Creative Officer, Jimmy Maynes.

Boombox! tends to specialize in old-school hip hop acts from the '80s and '90s -- and have booked big names like CeeLo Green, Tone Loc, and others -- so it's right up Coolio's alley .. and exactly why Maynes and co. were negotiating to get him onstage.

Maynes tells us the plan was to have Coolio come in and head the show starting at the end of October and running through the second week of November ... for a total of 10 days, with one performance per day at 5 days a week. In other words, ten concerts.

We're told Coolio would've been one of a handful of MCs -- he'd be the headliner -- and Maynes says he would've only done 3 songs when he was up. The tracks that were being considered ... "Gangsta's Paradise," '1, 2, 3, 4,' and "C U When U Get There."

As for the specifics of what Coolio had in mind ... it's pretty interesting. Maynes tells us Coolio made some requests for the stage for his set -- including a variety of props, upwards of 10 dancers, a 2-story background screen for visuals and two to three outfit changes.

We're told Coolio wanted his headlining set to be a look back on his story, and was excited for this next chapter of his career.

Of course, his death put an abrupt halt to things -- with Maynes telling us they're now scrapping that late October window and hoping to pick it back up in December with a whole new lineup. Indeed, Coolio passing away threw 'em for a loop.